dolore3

Yemen's al-Qaida urges kidnapping of Saudi royals

2012-03-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

A senior member of an al-Qaida offshoot in Yemen called on supporters in an audio recording posted Thursday to kidnap Christians and members of the Saudi royal family to avenge the arrest of a female preacher linked to the terror group.

In a 17-minute message, the deputy chief of al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula, Said al-Shihri, said such hostages could be used as a bargaining chip to secure the release of the terror group's supporters currently held in jails across the region.

But in a rare nod to al-Qaida's female supporters, al-Shihri focused on one woman detainee, the Saudi Haila al-Kassir, appearing to indicate her arrest was a significant loss for …

Town wants money from Greenbrier: Famous resort not in limits of White Sulphur Springs

2012-03-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - Mayor Debbie Fogus has lived in thiscorner of Greenbrier County on the eastern edge of the AlleghenyMountains for 34 years.

Just outside White Sulphur Springs is The Greenbrier, wherepampering, poshness and pretension pervade. But a short stroll fromthe legendary hotel's gates to City Hall paints a different picturewhere empty buildings and dilapidated homes line the streets.

Many of the 2,300 residents, like Fogus, thought the 225-year-oldresort owned by CSX Corp. was a good corporate citizen, payingproperty taxes to the town. It wasn't until Fogus reached adulthoodthat she learned differently.

"Everybody naturally assumed it was in …

Charges Dropped Against 2 Palestinians

2012-03-15T02:42:00.000-07:00

An immigration board has dismissed a case against two Palestinian men accused of having terrorist ties in a deportation attempt pursued over two decades by the administrations of four U.S. presidents.

The ruling closes a Byzantine legal saga that wound its way through federal appellate courts, the U.S. Supreme Court and federal immigration boards, breaking new legal ground along the way. It ended at the Department of Homeland Security, where the dismissal order was entered Tuesday.

One of the defendants, Khader Musa Hamide, said that he will never get over the experience of being under suspicion for 20 years, but that now "I can breathe …

Want good Web? Better get wired

2012-03-15T00:19:00.000-07:00

My friends, I declare here and now that the usefulness of WiFi for home networking has run its course. It's time for us all to switch back to copper.

Yes: wires. Thick CAT6 Ethernet cables snaking proudly and confidently throughout the house. C'mon. They're available in like six different colors and will match any decor. So long as the decorator's aesthetic was "I live alone and can do whatever I want."

Me, I have Ethernet cables neatly clipped to the baseboards, where they also serve to guide overnight guests ("Follow the black cable to the office router, then the yellow cable to the red cable will lead you to the guest bedroom").

Those of you who aren't as …

WHEN GREED HAS NO LIMITS: Outsourcing and job "restructuring" swell corporate profits

2012-03-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Most private sector employers have always regarded their employees as necessary evils, and unions as UNnecessary evils. When profits have to be shared with workers, the share going to owners, managers, and shareholders is correspondingly lessened, so payroll costs have always been kept as low as possible. Since the main role of unions is to prevent employers from cutting payroll costs, the unionization of employees has always been fiercely opposed.

Up until the late 1970s, the ability of employers to suppress workers' wage and benefit levels was constrained by national labour laws and standards, by the confinement of most industrial work within national boundaries, and by the …

Taliban Claims to Kill German Hostages

2012-03-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A purported Taliban spokesman said the hard-line militia killed two German hostages on Saturday because Germany didn't announce a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Afghan government, however, said one of the Germans died of a heart attack and that the second was still alive.

South Korea's government, meanwhile, attempted to win the release of at least 18 Korean Christians, including 15 women, kidnapped in the same region on Thursday.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to be a Taliban spokesman, said fighters had fatally shot the Germans, who were kidnapped on Wednesday along with five Afghan colleagues in the southern province of Wardak …

Rays rough up Angels to end 3-game losing streak

2012-03-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

Division winners a year ago, the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Angels are battling inconsistency this season.

"If you're going to put together a streak, you have to play well. And to play well, you have to be a good team. We're trying to grow into that club," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said after a 9-5 loss to the Rays dropped his team to 4-4 on a road trip that ends Thursday night.

"Certainly some things have to come together for us to be the club that we have the potential to be."

The Rays can say the same thing. While the Angels are off to a 29-28 start after winning the AL West last season, Tampa Bay is 30-31 following an …

Festival fee plan clears 1st hurdle // Council panel OKs neighborhood payment for services

2012-03-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Chicago's 500 neighborhood festivals would be required for thefirst time to reimburse the city for electrical and sanitationservices under an ordinance endorsed Thursday by a City Councilcommittee.

The fees, proposed by Mayor Daley and telegraphed in themayor's "bad news" 1992 budget, are aimed at recovering about $1million spent on city services porvided every year for neighborhoodfestivals.

The fees were approved unanimously by the Special EventsCommittee, along with a requirement that applications forspecial-events permits be filed 45 days in advance.

Under the mayor's ordinance, which is considered certain to bepassed by the Council, police, …

Court refuses to block execution in Ohio

2012-03-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has refused to block the imminent execution of a convicted killer of two people in Ohio, despite his lawyers' claims that he has dementia.

Daniel Lee Bedford, 63, …

NYC to address PCB-contaminated caulk in schools

2012-03-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and New York City announced a pilot program Tuesday to address the problem of potentially hazardous PCBs in construction materials in some city schools.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are chemicals that were widely used in caulk and other building materials until they were banned in the late 1970s.

The EPA says hundreds of school buildings across the country have caulk around windows and doors containing PCBs. The danger to students is uncertain, but the agency is telling schools that they should test old caulk and remove it if PCBs turn up in significant amounts.

Under the agreement announced …

STAT PACK

2012-03-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

5 million

Number of wild turkeys in the United States. When the NationalWild Turkey Federation was founded in 1973, there were 1.3 …

Asian Tour appoints ex-Euro tour chief

2012-03-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Former European Tour executive director Ken Schofield has been appointed to the board of the Asian Tour.

Asian Tour executive chairman Kyi Hla Han said Tuesday that Schofield would bring expertise on how to strengthen a tour which is drawn from a broad range of …

Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race

2012-03-14T03:04:00.000-07:00

Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race, By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, ReganBooks, October 2005, 326 pages, $25.95

FANTASY MATCHUP

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's much publicized efforts at bipartisanship are a thinly veiled disguise for her flaming liberal views, which will quickly flower should she be elected president in 2008. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a woman of blazing intelligence and civic-minded ambition who represents the only viable opportunity to stop the Clinton juggernaut in 2008.

So says Dick Morris, the onetime strategy maven for President Bill Clinton who has since become a virulent Clinton critic. Having already penned rebuttals to Bill and Hillary Clinton's autobiographies, "Because He Could" and "Rewriting History," respectively, Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, now aim to take the bloom off the Democratic senator from New York's carefully crafted public persona of recent years.

Hillary's public appearances with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in support of health records privacy, and her service on the generally military-friendly Senate Armed Services Committee do not represent a sincere move to a more moderate brand of politics, the authors contend.

They also argue that Clinton would have many liabilities when she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. They rehash the familiar tales of her failed efforts spearheading the health care overhaul task force early in her husband's presidency, which helped spark a backlash that led to Republicans winning control of Congress in 1994. There are the myriad Whitewater controversies, her role in President Clinton's last-minute pardons of drug dealers, tax cheats and other assorted scoundrels, and many more sordid tales.

The authors' strongest section on Clinton fleshes out why other potential Democratic contenders have no shot at beating her in the primaries. Her huge cash stash is one obvious reason. Lack of political star power by rivals is another. U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is dismissed as a technocratic drone, while U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1988, is described as a "has been who never was."

Secretary Rice is painted in an angelic light. A college graduate at age 19, she was a professor and administrator at Stanford University, national security advisor, and ultimately the first black woman secretary of state. Because she has repeatedly denied interest in running for president. Morris argues that she could effectively be drafted as the Republican standard bearer in 2008, over a mediocre wannabe field of U.S. senators and governors. The draft movement would come through online support, similar to the grass-roots excitement Howard Dean briefly generated in 2003.

His argument simply defies the political realities of our times. Before primaries ruled the nominating process, presidential nominees were indeed decided in proverbial "smoke-filled rooms." When bargainers found themselves at an impasse, a consensus candidate often emerged. But now presidential aspirants must start their campaigns years in advance, raising vast sums of money and lining up potential delegates in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other primary states.

Morris also glosses over the accounting Rice would likely have to do for her role in formulating the Iraq policy based on what seems now to be faulty intelligence.

Morris gets half the equation right. Hillary Clinton stands a very good chance to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008. It's the Republican nomination that remains wide open. And I doubt it would be filled by Condi.

Phillies 1, Marlins 0

2012-03-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia			Florida
ab r h bi		ab r h bi
Rollins ss	4 0 1 0		Bonifac 3b	3 0 1 0
Polanc 3b	3 0 0 0		Dobbs 3b	1 0 0 0
Utley 2b	4 0 1 0		Infante 2b	4 0 0 0
Howard 1b	4 0 0 0		GSnchz 1b	2 0 0 0
Ibanez lf	4 0 0 0		HRmrz ss	4 0 1 0
DBrwn rf	3 1 2 0		Morrsn lf	4 0 0 0
Schndr c	2 0 1 0		Stanton rf	3 0 0 0
Ruiz c	0 0 0 0		Petersn cf	3 0 0 0
Mrtnz cf	4 0 1 1		J.Buck c	2 0 0 0
Worley p	3 0 0 0		Hayes c	0 0 0 0
Stutes p	0 0 0 0		Nolasco p	1 0 0 0
BFrncs ph	0 0 0 0		Choate p	0 0 0 0
Gload ph	1 0 0 0		Wise ph	1 0 0 0
Bastrd p	0 0 0 0		MDunn p	0 0 0 0
		Mujica p	0 0 0 0
Totals	32 1 6 1		Totals	28 0 2 0

Philadelphia	000	000	100—1
Florida	000	000	000—0

E_Do.Brown (3). LOB_Philadelphia 8, Florida 5. SB_Rollins (18), Bonifacio (11), Stanton (3). S_Ruiz, Nolasco.

Philadelphia
	IP	H	R ER BB SO
Worley W,4-1	7	2	0	0	2	6
Stutes H,6	1	0	0	0	0	1
Bastardo S,5-5	1	0	0	0	1	1
Florida
Nolasco L,5-5	7	6	1	1	2	4
Choate	1	0	0	0	0	2
M.Dunn	2-3	0	0	0	1	0
Mujica	1-3	0	0	0	0	0

Umpires_Home, Kerwin Danley; First, Vic Carapazza; Second, Doug Eddings; Third, Dana DeMuth.

T_2:50. A_27,103 (38,560).

Japan relief organizations

2012-03-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the organizations thatare accepting donations for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief. Toread reports about charities, consult West Virginia Secretary ofState Natalie Tennant's online charities database atwww.apps.sos.wv.gov/business/charities/index.aspx

Organization Phone Website

Adventist Development & Relief Agency International 1-800-424-2372 www.adra.org

American Red Cross International Service 1-800-RED-CROSSwww.redcross.org

AmeriCares 1-203 658-9500 www.americares.org

CARE 1-800-521-2273 www.care.org

Church World Service 1-800-297-1516 www.churchworldservice.org

Direct Relief International 1-805 964-4767 www.directrelief.org

Episcopal Relief & Development 1-800-334-7626 www.er-d.org

Giving Children Hope 1-714 523-4454 www.gchope.org

Habitat for Humanity 1-800-HABITAT www.habitat.org

Handicap International 1-301-891-2138 www.handicap-international.us

Heart to Heart International. 1-913 764-5200www.hearttoheart.org

International Medical Corps 1-800-481-4462www.internationalmedicalcorps.org

International Rescue Committee 1-877 733-8433 www.theIRC.org

Islamic Relief USA 1-888-479-4968 www.irw.org

Mercy Corps 1-800-852-2100 www.mercycorps.org

Operation Blessing International 1-800-730-2537www.operationblessing.org

Relief International 1-310-478-1200 www.ri.org

UNICEF 1-800-367-5437 www.unicefusa.org

* Organizations accepting donations but not in Secretary of StateTennant's charities database:

All Hands Volunteers 1-919 830-3573 www.hands.org

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 1-212 687-6200www.jdc.org

Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team 1-301-738-7122 www.amurt.net

Baptist World Alliance 1-703 790-8980 www.bwanet.org/bwaid

Brother's Brother Foundation 1-412 321-3160www.brothersbrother.org

Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation 1-888-989-8244 www.us.tzuchi.org

Catholic Relief Services 1-877-HELP-CRS www.crs.org

Child Fund International 1-800-776-6767 www.childfund.org

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. 1-800-55-CRWRCwww.crwrc.org

Global Resource Services 1-888-849-8249 www.grsworld.org

Life for Relief & Development 1-248 424-7493 www.lifeusa.org

Medical Teams International 1-800-959-4325 www.medicalteams.org

Operation USA 1-800-678-7255 www.opusa.org

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance 1-888-728-7228 www.pcusa.org

Salvation Army World Service Office 1-800-SAL-ARMY www.sawso.org

Save the Children 1-800-728-3843 www.savethechildren.org

United Methodist Committee on Relief 1-800-554-8583 www.umcor.org

World Concern 1-800-755-5022 www.worldconcern.org

World Vision 1-800-777-5777 www.worldvision.org

The Illuminated Church and the Rayonnant Style

2012-03-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

The Illuminated Church and the Rayonnant Style

Light, Vision, and Architecture.

There is an intimate relation between architecture and its decoration. Whereas in early Christian and early medieval churches mosaics and paintings on walls had been the primary medium for the presentation of sacred stories, the elimination of solid mural surfaces and the transformation of the Gothic building into a skeletal frame led to the ascendancy of stained glass during the twelfth century. No doubt, the importance of an aesthetic that emphasized light as a metaphor of the Divine and spiritual experience spurred the creation of an architectural system that made a maximum expanse of stained glass possible. A third factor to consider is the rise of interest, during the twelfth century, in vision and optics. Not only were scholars curious about how physical objects and visual phenomena—rocks or rainbows—were seen, but they also explored the nature of what might be called "spiritual vision." How was it possible to understand St. John when he wrote in Revelations, chapter 21, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth—And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God"? As an explanation, Richard of Saint-Victor (d. 1173), the author of a commentary on Revelations, formulated four categories of vision. The first was the "simple perception of matter": I see a tree. The second viewed an object's "outward appearance," but saw a mystical significance in it: I see a rose that is a symbol of the Virgin Mary. The third level of vision was that of spiritual perception in which one discovered, to quote Richard, "the truth of hidden things by means of forms and figures." This is the experience described by St. John, who saw heaven in the form of a city. The fourth and highest level was the mystical mode in which the divine was encountered face to face. It is important to keep these notions of vision in mind when thinking about medieval architecture and its figurative decoration. Images, of course, were physical things, but through them Christians gained access to a realm beyond the mundane world. And the architecture of the church composed an elaborate frame for those pictures that could lead the worshipper to that higher, spiritual mode of vision.

STAINED
Glass

Historical Origins

Stained glass work is a phenomenon of the twelfth century, but one whose history can be traced far earlier. Indeed, the Romans had used glass made of local sand or silica in windows to transmit light and keep out insects and the elements. Decorative glass was used in windows in sacred buildings in the Byzantine Empire, in Syria, and in France (by about the sixth century at Lyon), as well as in Britain in Northumberland during the Anglo-Saxon period. Windows in the Carolingian period used colored glass, but the glass did not represent people or stories and was not painted. Augsburg Cathedral in Germany in about 1130 seems to have had decorative windows with fairly elaborate programs of painting, and Saint-Denis (1135) seems to have been the earliest full program (depicting a series of linked narrative episodes) in France.

Making Stained Glass

Shortly before the first mention of decorative stained glass windows in churches, detailed instructions for making them appeared in the treatise On Various Arts (c. 1100) by the monk Theophilus. He gave instructions for coloring glass, cutting and laying it out in designs on flat worktables, and assembling the pieces in a frame. The glass used in cathedrals and the wealthier parish church windows could be of two types—an older kind known as "potmetal" glass, colored in molten state by the addition of various metal oxides, or a "painted" type, further colored for detailed areas like faces or clothing folds by the addition of paints made of iron filings and pulverized glass suspended in a vehicle of wine or sometimes of urine. This paint could range in color from thick black to light gray, and it created a translucent effect. Once the pattern was achieved, the glass was fired in a kiln, bonding the paint to the surface permanently as a sort of glaze.

Color and Shapes

Ingeniously, the flat pieces of colored glass had designs traced on them with the tip of a tool like a hot poker, and then cold water was applied, causing the glass to crack exactly along the lines. The shape was further refined by using a holding tool called a grozer and a pair of pliers with a nipper-like jaw to crack off tiny pieces of the glass until the desired shape was reached. During the fourteenth century, a new addition to the glassmaker's toolbox was a stain made of silver oxide, which gives a range of colors from lemon yellow to bright orange, depending on how long the glass was fired. Thus, the artist could virtually paint on the glass and not have to join so many different colored pieces to obtain the desired design. Typical palettes included green, pink, yellow, blue, and shades of red. When the design was created, the pieces of glass were assembled on the flat glassmaker's board and held together in a mosaic of irregular shapes given structural strength by lead channels called cames. A groove along each edge of the came fit the piece of glass, and the resultant pattern was securely soldered together to form a large sheet that was shaped to fit in the arch of the window, encased in a stiffening iron frame.

Variations

About 100 years after the general introduction of stained glass, the dark, rich colors—reds and blues—changed to grisaille, a type of monochrome silvery gray which admitted more light. Grisaille could be unpainted when used in floral or geometric patterns, but was sometimes painted with foliate motifs, as at Salisbury Cathedral in England. From about 1150 on, grisaille glass in its natural state of green, pink, or clear was especially popular with the Cistercians, who avoided spectacular decoration; eventually grisaille was combined with the regular painted glass in some churches, such as Clermont Cathedral in France. As early as 1080–1100, stained glass was used in windows in York Minster in figurative scenes. Canterbury Cathedral was glazed with figurative windows from about 1180 to 1220. From about 1225, in addition to the scenes of New and Old Testament events and the lives of the saints, heraldic motifs and royal arms began to appear in church windows, often signifying the social status of a donor of the window or benefactor of the church. Patrons or donors sometimes had themselves memorialized in the windows of churches, as in the case of Abbot Suger, shown supplicating the Virgin in a window at Saint-Denis. Guilds who gave windows were often represented with scenes of their members (for example, shoemakers or bakers) pursuing their trades in the lower parts of the windows. Stained glass was carefully placed for best viewing, often in the windows of the end of the transept to give maximum visibility. Aisles had biblical subjects, and rose windows showed cosmological scenes or perhaps depictions of the Apocalypse and Last Judgment, while upper or clerestory windows often had large-scale individual figures, which were easier to interpret from far below.

Rayonnant Architecture.

The course of Gothic architecture can be described in terms of a series of structural innovations, all leading in the direction of greater light and visual space. The combination of the pointed arch, ribbed vault, and flying buttresses led to a new type of structure that was no longer an opaque box punctuated by intermittent window openings but rather a cage-like frame. As the size of windows expanded in the twelfth century, glass surfaces were subdivided into manageable sections. In the Chartres clerestory, the two tall pointed lancets with an oculus ("circular opening") are partitioned by flat pieces of stone, or plate tracery, that make them appear to be three holes punched through a solid wall. A new solution was proposed at Reims Cathedral in the 1210s, where the window was designed along the same lines as the other elements of the structure—as a taut network of slender ornamental shafts or mullions called "bar tracery." This invention had an enormous impact on the appearance of buildings, and, ultimately, on the way architecture was experienced. By the mid-thirteenth century, not only had bar tracery been developed into elaborate window patterns—at Amiens Cathedral, four-part windows decorate the clerestory while six-lancet compositions appear in the choir—but grids of delicate shafts began to spread over the remaining solid walls of the interior and exterior. In the interiors of new projects, including the rebuilding of Saint-Denis, the nave of Strasbourg Cathedral, or the choir of Clermont Cathedral, the networks of tracery were coordinated with piers composed of bundles of thin colonnettes to create an overall architecture of consistently delicate scale. On the exterior, the west façade of Strasbourg Cathedral (1275 fl.) in eastern France presents one of the most extravagant expressions of bar tracery, in which a fantastic fretwork of stone completely disguises the load-bearing walls behind. Gothic architecture between around 1240 and 1380 is often called the "Rayonnant," taking its name from the radiating spokes of the spectacular rose windows that dominate façades, as in the transepts of Notre-Dame in Paris or the west façade at Strasbourg. Although the Rayonnant is usually discussed as a phase in which architects refined forms to achieve an even greater degree of lightness and elegance, its development was a response to the visual experience of the church interior illuminated by stained glass.

The Sainte-Chapelle.

In two separate purchases of 1239 and 1241, Louis IX, king of France, acquired the most precious relics in Christendom: objects associated with the Crucifixion of Jesus. After bringing the Crown of Thorns, a large piece of the Cross, nails, the sponge, and the lance to his capital in Paris, he set about erecting an appropriately magnificent chapel to honor them in the heart of his palace. Like Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen, the Sainte-Chapelle, built between 1241 and 1248, contained two levels. A low, broad chapel on the ground floor, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, provided a base for the tall upper chapel wherethe relics of Christ were displayed and the king and his court worshipped. In this remarkable upper chapel, the architecture is reduced to thin clusters of vertical colonnettes, linked by iron chains that support the vault canopies and frame enormous, fifty-foot high stained glass windows. Its design resembles closely the triforium and clerestory of the nave of Amiens Cathedral, built in the 1220s and 1230s, producing the sensation that the visitor has been lifted up into a zone of space and light. Moreover, the architecture is clearly arranged as scaffolding that provided visual cues for apprehending the different ranks represented by the painting, sculpture, and stained glass. For example, closest to eye level and framed in the quatrefoils (four-lobed ornaments) of the wall arcade are paintings (now badly damaged) of local Parisian saints. Sculpted figures of the twelve apostles then appear attached to the columns, their architectural symbols, and lead the gaze up to the windows that present the entire cycle of divine history from Genesis to the Second Coming. Here the architecture creates distinctpatterns for each level. The images of the earthly lives of local saints are framed by arcades organized in three units of two, while the stained glass narratives appear in twoand four-lancet windows. Second, as one moves upward across these architectural thresholds, the medium also changes from the more physical substance of opaque paint and three-dimensional sculpture to the jewel-like light of the windows. Although the architecture of the Sainte-Chapelle did not impose a rigid system that dictated the placement of certain images or media in specific locations, its careful organization and relentless subdivision of surfaces into panels, arcades, and niches on multiple levels created a flexible, but structured framework that measured the stages of devotional experience. A measure of the international impact of the Sainte-Chapelle and the French rayonnant style can be seen in the choir of Aachen Cathedral that was added to Charlemagne's church beginning in 1355. The majestic, solid masonry of Carolingian architecture has been replaced by an armature of shafts and ribs that frame enormous windows. Instead of Roman columns and Corinthian capitals, there are taut screens of tracery, animated sculpted figures of saints, and glowing panels of stained glass that combine in a building whose meaning no longer resides in historical references, but rather is created through the emulation of the dazzling effects of shrines and the evocation of a heavenly edifice.

Clermont Cathedral.

Clermont Cathedral, located in the modern city of Clermont-Ferrand in central France, may well have been inspired by the Sainte-Chapelle. The bishop of Clermont, Hugues de la Tour, attended the dedication of the royal chapel on 26 April 1248, and within a few months launched a new structure in his own diocese to replace the old Romanesque church. The thirteenth-century master mason, Jean Deschamps, adopted an up-to-date Rayonnant style that appears tailor-made for its role as a monumental picture frame. Looking into the deep chapels from the ambulatory, one first sees a section of bare, solid wall. Then, moving into the chapel, the eye first encounters a blind tracery pattern, and then is pulled to the expanse of luminous glazed walls. The colonnettes, moldings, and ribs that constitute the architectural structure define a sequence of thresholds through which one looks: from a location in the ambulatory into the chapel which only the clergy could enter; from a world of solid matter into a realm of light that presents the stories of sacred and saintly history. The paintings added to the lower wall beautifully articulate this visionary path. In one chapel, an angel leads a procession of canons forward into the presence of the saint, while in another, a canon kneels in devotion as his celestial guide points to the altar and the glass cycle beyond. As one gazes upward into the main space of the choir, the clerestory windows appear to hover above the dark band of the triforium that creates a gateway to the visionary realm above. In the clerestory, the rich color of the narrative windows of the chapels evaporates into the cool light of fields of grisaille glass (decorated monochromatically in shades of gray) in which figurative panels of Old Testament prophets, apostles, and in the axial lancets, the Assumption of the Virgin, float. This switch from full color to grisaille, a style of glazing that became widespread in the second half of the thirteenth century, offers another metaphor for spiritual ascent: from the almost tangible colored light, characteristic of terrestrial perception and appropriate to the subject of saints' lives to the brighter, flashing divine light at the highest level of the church.

Different Paths.

The Westminster Abbey choir (1245–1272), Cologne Cathedral in Germany (begun 1248), and León Cathedral in Spain (begun around 1254) adopted the Rayonnant style in its entirety alongwith stained glass as an essential part of the decoration. While this may reflect the prestige that French art and culture acquired during the reign of Louis IX, these royal churches were not trying to be French. Glazing programs were geared to local saints and rulers, suggesting that French architecture was emulated primarily because of its effective representation of the church as an image of heaven, as well as its ability to organize complex ensembles of pictures. Apart from a handful of clearly French-inspired edifices, European architecture between 1300 and 1500 presents an overwhelming variety. For example, the influential church of Saint-Rombout, Mechelen, in the Brabant region of Belgium was rebuilt after a fire in 1342 in the fashionable rayonnant style with wiry patterns of bar tracery that fill the windows and spread over the walls. But its enormous (unfinished) west tower, begun in 1452 and supervised by the architect Andries Keldermans between 1468 and 1500, looked to such contemporary German designs as Ulm Cathedral as well as the great towers of local secular civic structures. Finally, the choir of the church of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg, built 1439–1477, could hardly be more different from Amiens or Clermont in France. A hall church, a type in which the aisles rise to the same height as the central vessel, capped by an intricate net vault and exhibiting a variety of tracery designs, St. Lorenz offered fluid, indeterminate space in place of clear organization. Nevertheless, the ribbed vaults defined interior spatial compartments and the bar tracery created hierarchies of arches, repeated at different scales in which a worshipper was free to plot his own itinerary through stained glass panels, painted altarpieces, and sculpted keystones. Like the Sainte-Chapelle, St. Lorenz's architecture delineated the thresholds and setting of meditation in which the objects and images encountered as a spatial sequence became the material vehicles for an inward journey.

sources

Marcel Aubert, et al., Les Vitraux de Notre-Dame et de la Sainte-Chapelle de Paris. Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevii (Paris: Caisse nationale des monuments historiques, 1959).

Robert Branner, Saint Louis and the Court Style in French Gothic Architecture (London: Zwemmer, 1965).

Sarah Brown and David O'Connor, Medieval Craftsmen: Glass Painters (London: The British Museum, 1991).

Madeline Caviness, "Stained Glass," in English Romanesque Art 1066–1200. Ed. George Zarnecki et al. (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984): 135–145.

Sarah Crewe, Stained Glass in England 1180–1540 (London: HMSO, 1987).

Jean-Michel Leniaud and Françoise Perrot, La Sainte-Chapelle (Paris: Nathan, 1991).

Meredeth Parsons Lillich, The Armor of Light: Stained Glass in Western France 1250–1325 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

Richard Marks, "The Medieval Glass of Wells Cathedral," in Wells Cathedral: A History. Ed. L. S. Colchester (Shepton Mallett: Open Books, 1982): 132–147.

—, Stained Glass in England during the Middle Ages (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Designer enters 2011 moving forward, looking back

2012-03-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) — American fashion designer Zac Posen is going into his second decade in business literally re-examining what made him a fashion industry staple in the first place.

Hanging on a rack near a Lurex snakeskin-like sheath and a knit sweater boasting the profiles of Posen's prized pooches at a preview of his pre-fall collection was a seemingly simple black gown. That is, simple until you got a better look.

Posen says what he did for this gown and a few other new pieces, including a trumpet skirt and tweed-and-lace suit, was go back to his archives and recapture some of the excitement he felt as a novice designer while adding the craftsmanship he's learned on the job.

The gown as it was made years ago was pretty good, he says, but there was room for improvement. "I started looking at the insides. I wanted to know what the inside of the clothes looked like, and they are beautiful. It shows the architecture. It gives it an edge. It shows the emotion of the clothes," he says.

He turned the dress inside-out, and the result was just as he described: a sexy, modern dress with frayed fabric and exposed seams, yet with a mature, sophisticated touch.

It fits nicely with the overall collection, which clearly has roots in other early Posen pieces, too. "Vintage — 10 years in the making," he jokes.

When he started out as the toast of the town, design came naturally and viscerally, he explains, but he's seen the fashion industry, as well as his own company, go through many changes that require a more deliberate approach when it comes to business. He's developed a confidence to stick with what he does best and not change directions to follow a trend.

Posen, right there in the pages of The New York Times earlier this year, openly discussed his struggles to keep his business financially viable. He feels he's in a better place now. Lately, he's turned the tide toward more positive buzz. Reviewers have been complimentary of the pre-fall looks, and actresses Reese Witherspoon and Christina Ricci turned up on red carpets this month in his signature sexy numbers.

He'll show his top-tier fall collection for the second season in a row in Paris in February, and the contemporary collection Z Spoke in New York.

"I feel more in tune creatively now with when I started than I had in year. I've learned you have to trust your work. You have to learn the trick for taking risks without looking like you're taking risks and are too out there," he says.

Improving Patterson could return this week

2012-03-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK -- Manager Dusty Baker said Sunday that center fielderCorey Patterson could return to the Cubs during a seven-gamehomestand this week that starts tonight against the Cincinnati Reds.

Patterson finally has linked together some good performances atClass AAA Iowa. He was 1-for-3 with two strikeouts Sunday but is 6-for-11 in his last three games and might be settling into a betteroffensive form than when the Cubs demoted him July 7 to change hishitting approach.

Patterson has adjusted where he holds his hands and has put moreflexibility into his body.

"If he keeps doing it, there's a chance," Baker said aboutPatterson returning to the Cubs this week. "All we wanted was a semi-period of good play. We didn't send him down there to exile him toSiberia for the next 2 1/2 months. We sent him down there to get hisstuff together and then come back and help us. Nobody is pulling forhim harder than we are. We need him."

FORCED TO SIT: You can't say right fielder Jeromy Burnitz hasn'tgiven it all he has. When Baker tried to give him Friday off, heresisted, so Baker let Burnitz play against the New York Mets.

But Baker finally sat down Burnitz on Sunday and gave the start inright field to Todd Hollandsworth. Burnitz is in a hitting slump, andBaker has noticed the effect it has taken on his swing.

"He is ahead on off-speed pitches and behind and up in the air onfastballs," he said. "I wanted to give him the first day off here,but Burny really, really wanted to play.

"We've got a late get-in [this morning] and then a day game[Tuesday]. If I didn't give him [Sunday] off, it could haverepercussions the next three or four days."

HOMELY AT HOME: The Cubs are 27-26 at Wrigley Field. As generalmanager Jim Hendry emphasized Friday, that has to improve in thefinal two months if they still have postseason visions.

Baker reiterated that the Cubs have to win the two series thisweek against the Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.

"We have to start some home dominance," he said. "Once you get ina real good homestand, people start feeling it. We do need a goodhomestand."

Four killed when truck rams hayride trailer

2012-03-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

TEMPERANCE HILL, S.C. - The driver of a tractor-trailer wascharged with drunken driving after slamming into a hayride andkilling four people, including a toddler.

The crash happened Sunday night, when the 18-wheeler hit a flatbedtrailer and the tractor pulling it. Sixteen people were injured; tworemained hospitalized.

Investigators said it was unclear how fast the truck was going,and they would not disclose the truck driver's blood-alcohol level.

Jake Davis Jr., 51, tried to swerve to the left to avoidovertaking and hitting the hayride, authorities said. At the sametime, tractor driver Franklin Jones Jr., 33, swerved in the samedirection to avoid being hit, said Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. PaulBrouthers.

The flatbed trailer did not have taillights, Brouthers said.

The trailer sat near the road Monday, still holding blankets,jackets, sneakers and a baby's pacifier. All the items were soaked indiesel fuel.

Authorities identified the dead as Jerry Wayne Jones, 31; ShiwannaLowery, 15; Freddie Lynn Jones, 24; and 2-year-old Javon Jones.

Authorities were unsure of the relationship between the Joneses.But Gregory Carter, an uncle of Jerry and Freddie Jones, said Javonwas the son of Freddie Jones.

Canada captain Bagai coming 'home' to New Delhi

2012-03-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI (AP) — Canada captain Ashish Bagai feels "at ease" on his return to his city of birth and has backed two more of his team's India-born contingent to play important roles in the World Cup match against Kenya at New Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

Bagai said it was "fair enough" to describe Monday's Group A game against a fellow struggler as the winless Canadians' own World Cup final.

Legspinner Balaji Rao and slow leftarm bowler Parth Desai would be key in "a game of spin" at the Kotla ground, Bagai said Sunday. It is Canada's best chance of a first win at this tournament, and just a second-ever World Cup win.

"We still have a lot to offer in this World Cup," Bagai said. "Three games to go, very slim chance of getting into the next round, but still a lot to play for. It's a very important game for us."

Rao, who was born in the southern city of Chennai, has been Canada's best bowler with six wickets in three games, including 4-57 vs. Zimbabwe.

Desai, originally from India's western state of Gujarat, will probably come in for his first game of the tournament, Bagai added, to boost Canada's spin attack on the slow, bowler-friendly New Delhi pitch.

There are six India-born players in Canada's 15-man squad, and they're all happy to be in Delhi for the must-win match. Canada opened with three defeats.

"The feeling's great," Bagai said when asked about his return to the city where he grew up. "It's a very good feeling coming home. I feel at ease and so do the rest of guys.

"Hopefully we get a fair bit of support. We have a few Indians, or people from Indian backgrounds, so it will be nice to get some support."

While Bagai was buoyant about his team's bowling options, he conceded the batting had not been good enough so far at the World Cup and "needs to step up."

"Hopefully we can finish on a high," he said.

Allrounder John Davison will face a fitness test on Monday morning after injuring a muscle in his right leg that ruled him out of the Pakistan game.

With two ducks in two innings opening the batting, the 40-year-old Davison's lack of form meant Canada would "re-evaluate" its batting order, Bagai said. But Davison offered an important option with his offspinners.

"He definitely has a big part to play with the ball tomorrow," Bagai said.

The veteran Davison's 16-year-old opening partner, Nitish Kumar, is also struggling to make runs but that didn't worry Canada's management — or the youngster — according to Bagai.

"He's 16, I don't think he knows what's going on, really. It's good, we want it that way. He's not really fussed about getting out. He doesn't get frustrated easily. He's a very simple boy and he keeps it very simple."

Real race to win 2016 Olympics bid set to begin

2012-03-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

The real race for the 2016 Olympic Games is about to begin.

On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee will whittle the list of seven applicant cities down to an unspecified number of finalists that can continue their efforts to win the games.

Organizers in Chicago are confident the IOC will determine they can clear that hurdle, which boils down to whether the city has the technical ability to host an Olympic Games.

After that comes the hard work: convincing IOC members that Chicago is the best site for the games.

"We all become much more focused," said Doug Arnot, the operations chief for the city's 2016 bid. "The analogy we've drawn is we've been playing in the regular season and now we're going into the playoffs."

It would be a stunning development if Chicago is not among the three, four or five finalists that officials believe will be left competing for the games. A big reason is that Chicago has already answered the kind of technical questions about issues such as transportation, accommodations, convention space and infrastructure just to get this far.

"We do feel confident we will advance based upon the rigorous evaluation we did as a national Olympic committee by the U.S Olympic Committee to choose the city of Chicago," said USOC vice president Bob Ctvrtlik in a conference call with reporters.

Ctvrtlik and Arnot are not concerned about where Chicago is ranked among those cities that make this cut. They pointed out that the top-ranked city at this point in the competition rarely, if ever, is ultimately awarded the games _ including Madrid, which finished in the top spot for the 2012 games that were ultimately awarded to London.

All that matters, Ctvrtlik and Arnot said, is moving on.

Ctvrtlik said that when the final decision will be much more subjective, more emotional, and Chicago will make a strong argument.

"This city and the concept of having an Olympics in the center of the city, with access to the cultural institutions and the night life and the wonderful restaurants and the vibrancy of the city, that's a unique proposition that really hasn't been seen by the Olympic movement in a long time," he said.

Dick Advocaat takes over as coach of AZ Alkmaar

2012-03-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

AZ Alkmaar says Dick Advocaat will coach the club for the rest of the season, replacing the fired Ronald Koeman.

Advocaat will combine the AZ job with his position as Belgium national team coach.

AZ says Advocaat will start work Thursday, the day after the team plays Standard Liege in the Champions League. AZ has already been eliminated from the Champions League and has to beat Standard to progress to the Europa League.

Advocaat says his aim is to ensure AZ plays European football next season. He says "if we don't succeed in that, I will have failed."

Belgium did not qualify for next year's World Cup.

Egypt's ruling party opens possible path for Mubarak's son's succession

2012-03-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Egypt's ruling party appointed President Hosni Mubarak's son to an important new committee in a move seen as further paving the way for the younger Mubarak to succeed his father.

Gamal Mubarak has risen dramatically in the ranks of the party since the National Democratic Party's last convention in 2002 and is now number two in the party and head of the powerful policy making committee.

Three years ago, there were angry protests against his succession. Recently, demonstrations have waned, but talk of succession picked up over the summer following rumors that Mubarak was ill.

Traditionally, the presidential candidate had to be head of the party's political bureau. But in the spring, the constitution was changed to require only that the candidate be chosen from the members of a new structure called the Supreme Committee.

Saturday's measure, passed during the opening day of the party's general convention, elected Gamal to that committee, which has 50 members. The move is seen as a more discreet way of setting him up as a presidential candidate than appointing him to the party's political bureau.

Analysts say the move provides the constitutional cover to elevate Mubarak to power, a subtle way to counter the growing challenge by the opposition.

Both father and son have denied the succession rumors. But many doubt those denials and point to a recent crackdown against the media as intimidation of potential critics of the transition.

Mubarak and his ruling party struck back _ sending a prominent independent newspaper chief to trial over articles he ran questioning Mubarak's health. The move was the latest in a string of trials of journalists that appears aimed at intimidating those who could oppose a transfer of power to Gamal.

Mubarak, who has led Egypt since 1981, was re-elected as the leader of the NDP during the opening session of Saturday's convention.

The 79-year-old president said employment, investment and national security would top the agenda during his ruling party's convention, but carefully avoided any talk of succession.

Even if party members avoid the sensitive succession topic, discussion of Egypt's economy could prove controversial.

While the World Bank ranked Egypt as the world's most improved economy for investors this year, and the country has seen an average growth rate of 7 percent over the last three years, the poor increasingly feel squeezed out. Their frustration could pose an even greater threat to stability than the government's traditional political rivals such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

In recent months, government has been trying to rein in the largest spate of labor unrest the country has seen in decades. About a month ago, the government rushed to resolve a strike of 27,000 workers at a factory in the Nile Delta.

Magazine's kitchen issue hits stands

2012-03-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Consumer Reports is presenting a guide to kitchens in its Augustissue. The magazine has 17 pages of ranges, cooktops, wall ovens,dishwashers and refrigerators.

The appliances performance levels and prices are compared. Forexample, dishwashers and refrigerators are rated for price, energyuse, temperature, noise and ease of use. Cooktops are rated forprice, speed of heating and cleaning.

In recent years, sales have been increasing for professional-styleappliances, which restaurants use. For example, a Sub-Zerorefrigerator and a Garland range both cost at least $4,000. However,moderately priced appliances continue to dominate the market.

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit testingorganization. In an effort to be unbiased, the magazine accepts noadvertising or free samples. The August issue of Consumer Reports,with the "The Ultimate Kitchen Guide" cover story, is on newsstandsnow.

Landlord complaints. Ed Sacks, who for many years has written aSunday Homelife column about tenant/landlord disputes, will beavailable to answer questions during a radio program on WVAZ-FM(102.7) at 7 a.m. Sunday.

Downtown seminar. Shopping for the best mortgage and accessingyour credit history will be discussed at a free first-time home-buying seminar Thursday at the Thompson Center.

The difference between a buyer agent and a traditional agent willbe addressed, as well. The seminar will be at 5:30 p.m. at 100 W.Randolph. First-time home-buying seminar. For reservations, callBuyer's Agent of Chicagoland, (312) 357-2090.

`Ode To Old Bathroom.' Barbara Valzonis, a Chicago resident, isone of five finalists in a contest to win a remodeled bathroom -valued at $12,000.

Roto-Rooter, a plumbing and drain-cleaning service, asked lavatorylovers across the nation to express their affection for theirbathrooms. There are about 2,200 entries.

Valzonis decided to enter the contest after reading about it in anarticle in Homelife. Here is her "Ode To My Old Bathroom": I loveyou though your tiles are weak./ The tub drip-drains, the faucetssqueak./ Your grout is crumbly, the toilet sticks./ And that leakydrain - I just can't fix./ But despite it all, you're where I go/After workday crazed and traffic slow./ I fill the tub and slipinside/ To soak and doze all dreamy-eyed./ Aches melt away, I mellowout./ I get recharged, I want to shout:/ Old bathroom, though I wishyou new/ I'm still plumb crazy about you.

Frat loses appeal Judge reaffirms right of NU to control house

2012-03-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Phi Delta Theta chapter at Northwestern University will behomeless this year.

Cook County Circuit Judge Aaron Jaffe ruled Monday that there areno legal grounds to stop the university from booting the fraternityout of its university-owned house at 2347 N. Sheridan in Evanston.

"It reaffirms the right of the university to control its property. . . and to set standards of behavior for its students," saidNorthwestern spokesman Alan Cubbage. "By and large, we don't have aproblem with the members of the Greek community. It was a problemwith one fraternity. It's a matter of taking responsibility for youractions."

The eviction covers the 1999-2000 school year.

Phi Delta Theta can apply to lease a university home for the 2000-01 school year, Cubbage said.

Fraternity members left court without comment. Their attorney,Daniel Streckert, whose son, Joshua, is a fraternity member, had nocomment.

Last week, fraternity President David Sykes insisted in court thatPhi Delta Theta was not an Evanston version of "Animal House."

The fraternity's request to renew its annual lease was rejected byNorthwestern because of past infractions, including ripping out asink and using it as a urinal, illegal cable television hookups andthrowing furniture out the windows.

Jaffe criticized Phi Delta Theta for suing Northwestern, callingthe lawsuit "an unnecessary drain" on the courts.

Cubbage said 30 students will be assigned to live at 2347 N.Sheridan, including some members of Phi Delta Theta. But mostfraternity members will be assigned to other university housing.

Phi Delta Theta members may hold meetings on campus, and they willbe allowed to eat together in dining halls if they choose, Cubbagesaid.

Northwestern has 23 social fraternities with 19 of them leasinghomes from Northwestern, all under long-term leases except for PhiDelta Theta.

In the last five years, two fraternities at NU have been hit withmore serious punishment. The university pulled the charters of twobecause of significant infractions, Cubbage said.

When a charter is pulled, a fraternity no longer has the right toexist on campus. Phi Delta Theta can still exist, they just can'thave a house. They can apply as early as January to return to theirhouse.

Contributing: Lorraine Forte

Campaigns take cash, seek details later

2012-03-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's presidential campaign is promising to refund unlawful foreign contributions it accepted from outside the United States, discovered during Associated Press interviews with donors in 11 countries. John McCain's campaign says it's impractical to follow all the government's instructions for keeping prohibited foreign money out of the U.S. election.

The AP's review of hundreds of thousands of donations found clear evidence that both campaigns took money first and asked questions later. The review turned up a smattering of illegal foreign donations to Obama as well as missing details in federal paperwork the law requires from Obama and McCain.

New contribution reports were expected to be turned in Wednesday to the Federal Election Commission.

During interviews with 123 donors in 11 countries, The Associated Press found contributions Obama accepted from at least three foreigners. Just five donors, three for Obama and two for McCain, told the AP that the campaigns asked to see copies of their current U.S. passports _ as instructed by the Federal Election Commission to avoid legal problems.

Obama's campaign said it would refund the money to the foreign donors.

One donor, Tom Sanderson of Canada, made clear his $500 contribution came from a foreign source. He included a note that said, "I am not a American citizen!" Obama's campaign took the money anyway, even publishing Sanderson's cautionary statement about his citizenship in its official finance reports.

Only American citizens or green card holders are legally permitted to give campaigns money, a longtime ban intended to protect U.S. elections from foreign meddling and influence. The Federal Election Commission instructs that candidates ask to see an overseas donor's current U.S. passport to protect against foreign intrusion. Screening donors can be a daunting task in a presidential race, especially one with record sums and millions of dollars coming in over the Internet.

Obama has raised at least $2 million abroad, far more than McCain's total of at least $229,000, according to the AP's review of campaign finance records. The amount reported flowing in from outside the U.S. is a small percentage of the roughly $390 million raised so far by Obama and the $167 million by McCain. But few contributors contacted by the AP said the campaigns asked to see their passports.

"I donated to the Obama campaign because I was so excited and thrilled to hear him speak," said Sanderson, a property manager in Calgary.

Sanderson said he donated money using Obama's Web site and doesn't remember checking a box certifying he was a U.S. citizen, instead noting next to his address that he wasn't. After the AP contacted Sanderson by phone, he asked the campaign for a refund.

A spokesman for Obama, Ben LaBolt, said campaign workers "consistently review our procedures to make sure that we are taking every reasonable step to ensure that the contributions we receive are appropriate and follow FEC guidelines, and we will do so again in light of this new information."

McCain's campaign said it was impractical to ask Internet contributors for copies of their passports. "We're always looking for ways to best comply with all provisions of campaign finance regulations, and obviously take swift action anytime flags are raised regarding potentially problematic campaign contributions," spokesman Brian Rogers said.

The AP analyzed 1.27 million campaign contributions to Obama and McCain to identify 6,948 contributions from people who appeared to live outside the United States and who were not obviously in the U.S. military. The AP contacted 123 donors in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.

The AP was able to reach 116 Obama supporters, six McCain backers and one donor who gave to both; Obama has far more overseas donors than McCain.

Australian Richard Watters gave Obama's campaign $1,000 over the Internet, entering a fake U.S. passport number so the site would take his money. He said he also checked a box stating that he was an American living overseas.

Watters was surprised when a reporter told him it was illegal for foreigners to donate to U.S. presidential campaigns, but he said he was still glad he gave.

"I wouldn't give up, because I believe in the man _ I really do," said Watters, 76, of Sydney, a stock market trader.

Swiss citizen Gilles Massamba gave Obama at least $436 and received campaign souvenirs. He said the campaign didn't ask whether he was a U.S. citizen.

A spokesman for the FEC, Bob Biersack, said it was prudent for the campaigns to ask online donors to check a box confirming they are U.S. citizens, but obtaining copies of U.S. passports from overseas donors is the only protection against enforcement action.

In dozens of instances, the AP could not determine whether donors had foreign addresses since their addresses were missing from campaign finance reports.

The ramifications of accepting foreign money can vary from political embarrassment to federal investigations: The last major foreign money scandal, a 1996 Democratic case involving Asian money and the Clinton-Gore re-election effort, resulted in record FEC fines totaling $719,000 and probation for some of those involved.

McCain's campaign announced this month it will return $50,000 solicited by a foreigner and business partner of a McCain volunteer fundraiser in Florida.

The candidates are supposed to disclose detailed information about donors who give $200 or more, including their addresses, employers and occupations. At a minimum, if donors give more than $50, the candidates are expected to record their names.

No donor names appeared in Obama's campaign finance reports for a handful of donations over $50. In dozens of cases, there were names but no addresses. "Anonymous," "999 Anonymous Street," "XX" or "Info Requested" are listed for roughly 200 donations to McCain.

The requirement to include employers is intended to let the public and news media see who is giving and help identify favors that donors or their employers may receive.

The FEC expects campaigns to follow up with donors to seek missing information, but they do not have to try very hard: One attempt, such as a postcard sent to the contributor's address, is considered due diligence under fundraising rules.

In Canada, Sanderson left a message with Obama's campaign and sent an e-mail after learning his donation was illegal. He said he hoped his contribution wouldn't "rustle any feathers." Sanderson said he considered donating money to McCain to neutralize the political value his donation might have, but said: "My wife talked me out of it."

____

Associated Press writers Anrica Deb in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Jorge Sainz in Madrid, Spain; Matt Moore in Berlin; Eliane Engeler and Alexander Higgins in Geneva; Min Lee, Jeremiah Marquez and Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong; Steve Weizman in Jerusalem; Devon Haynie in Johannesburg, South Africa; Gaelle Faure and Elaine Ganley in Paris; Marta Falconi in Rome; Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Australia; Rob Gillies in Toronto; and Stephanie Garlow, Ann Sanner and Christine Simmons in Washington contributed to this report.

Resources

2012-03-12T05:49:00.000-07:00

resources

Invoking Community: Rethinking the Health of Lesbian and Bisexual Women (Feminist Voices No. 10)

Natasha Bailey, Maria Gurevish and Cynthia Mathieson

Lesbian and bisexual women reveal the importance of community in their lives and its relationship to their health. The community serves multiple functions, providing emotional and tangible resources for women and a sense of belonging in an isolating, heterosexist society. At the same time, sexual health can suffer when a community imposes expected rules for behaviour. Finding a place in community carries implications for health in its broadest sense.

Cost: $13.95. English.

Published by:

CRIAW/ICREF, 2000

408-151 Slater Street

Ottawa ON K1P 5H3

Fax: (613) 563-0682

info@criaw-icref.ca and mcote@criaw-icref.ca

The Clueless Vegetarian

Evelyn Raab

Whether you're a vegetarian, contemplating becoming one, or just live with someone who is, this cookbook will explain the basics. Raab discusses the kinds of vegetarian diets and each recipe is coded to identify which is appropriate. Easy recipes are provided along with nutritional information to help you make good food choices (without obsessing). This cookbook makes eating vegetarian an appealing meal alternative for everyone.

Cost: $22.95. English.

Key Porter Books, 2000

70 The Esplanade

Toronto ON M5E 1R2

Tel.: (416) 862-7777

Fax: (416) 862-2304

www.keyporter.com

Memoires d'une bataille in achevee: la lutte pour I'avortement au Quebec, 1970-1992

Louise Desmarais

Louise Desmarais, a research officer for the Quebec government, has written an exhaustive account of the 30-year struggle for abortion rights in Quebec. The battle has centred on a basic issue for women: the right to free abortion on demand, one of the most important demands of the feminist movement in Quebec.

Price $34.95. In French.

Available from:

Editions Trait d'union, 1999

428 Rachel St. East

Montreal, Quebec H2J 2G7

Tel.: (514) 985-0136

Fax: (514) 879-8373

The Natural Estrogen Diet

Dr. Lana Liew

Discusses some of the symptoms of menopause and explains how phytoestrogens - particularly those found in soy foods - work to alleviate menopause-related problems. Nutritional information on various soy products is given along with recipes to help integrate them into your diet. To provide a complete alternative to hormone therapy, this book also looks into the other benefits of phytoestrogens, such as protection against heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer.

Cost: $21.50. English.

Published by:

Hunter House Publishers, 1999

Order through most bookstores, or by calling: 1-800-266-5592

Casualties of Progress: Personal Histories from the Chemically Sensitive

Alison Johnson, Editor

From graphic artist to chaplain, people all over the industrialized world are being disabled by a health condition that many doctors claim is all in their heads. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is an illness brought on by exposure to chemicals, like those found in pesticides and even perfume. It causes symptoms ranging from headaches and chills to throat cysts. Chemically sensitive people reveal the daily struggles they face while living in a world of chemical pollutants.

Cost: $14.00. English.

Published by:

MCS Information Exchange, 2000

2 Oakland Street

Brunswick, ME 04011

http://members.xoom.com/IButterfly/mcsvideo

Health Talk: How to communicate with your doctor

Mary F. Hawkins

Health Talk is about taking ownership of your health care, from understanding the Canadian health care system to communicating effectively with your doctor. It is packed with strategies you can use to be successful in an active role, whether you are communicating on behalf of yourself, a child or another adult.

Cost: $17.95. English.

CDG Books Inc., 2000

99 Yorkville Avenue, Suite 400

Toronto ON M5R 3K5

The Dome of Silence: Sexual Harassment and Abuse in Sport

Sandra Kirby, Lorraine Greaves and Olena Hankivsky

Examines the values underlying sport and their effects on athletes, coaches and the culture of sport. Sexual denigration, hazing, and domineering training regimes are just some of the issues Canadian athletes deal with, though in large part it is the silence surrounding these issues that remains the major problem. Sport is a part of society, not a moral oasis. It is time to challenge the racism, homophobia, and sexual abuse at play within.

Cost: $17.95. English.

Published by:

Fernwood Publishing, 2000

Box 9409m Station A

Halifax NS B3K 5S3

http://home.istar.ca/~fernwood/

Addiction by Prescription: One Woman's Triumph and Fight for Change

Joan E. Gadsby

Recounts one woman's nightmare prescription drug addiction and her efforts to prevent such involuntary addiction in others. Benzodiazepines (tranquilizers and sleeping pills) continue to be the most widely-prescribed drugs in the world despite their know and often serious physical, cognitive, and emotional side-effects. Gasby lobbies for systematic and legislative change that will hold the entire health community to a higher standard of ethics and accountability.

2000.

Cost: $29.95. English.

Key Porter Books Ltd., 2000

70 The Esplanade

Toronto ON M5E 1R2

Tel.: (416) 862-7777

Fax: (416) 862-2304

www.keyporter.com

La garde partagee: Lequite en question

Denyse Cote

The only research done to date on how the daily environment has changed for children and parents in joint physical custody arrangements, in the light of recent changes in motherhood and fatherhood. The book demonstrates that there is a gap between the model and reality, which must be understood to ensure that custody policies and practices do not bring about new forms of discrimination.

Price: $19.95. In French.

Available from:

Les editions du remue-menage, 2000

110 Sainte-Therese St., Suite 501

Montreal, Quebec

H2Y 1E6

Tel.: (514) 876-0097

L'agenda des femmes 2001 "La sante"

The texts in this agenda give an idea of the extraordinary creativity displayed by women in establishing resources in the health sector. There is also much food for thought in terms of the shortcomings of our health system, particularly in the areas of contraception, alternative medicine and treatment for First Nations women and young lesbians.

Price: $12.95. In French.

Available from:

Les editions du

remue-menage, 2000

110 Sainte-Therese St., Suite 501

Montreal, Quebec

H2Y 1E6

Tel.: (514) 876-0097

Alternatives in Cancer Therapy: The Case for Choice

Penelope Williams

Author Penelope Williams argues that despite the impressive success rate of alternative treatments, particularly LAT (immuno-augmentative therapy), the North American medical establishment is unwilling to look at new ways of treating cancer outside the traditional trio of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Focussing on alternative treatments that have their basis in conventional medical research, she calls for a combination of conventional and alternative treatments in the healing process.

Cost: $24.95. English.

Published by:

Key Porter Books, 2000

70 The Esplanade

Toronto ON M5E 1R2

Tel.: (416) 862-7777

Fax: (416) 862-2304

www.keyporter.com

Note: We do our best to list the current cost of items reviewed before we publish, but prices do change. Costs listed do not always include shipping charges. We suggest you confirm the price with suppliers before you order.

Resources are compiled by Jennifer Litchfield.

Photo (Cover of The Natural Estrogen Diet)

Jazz Win 1st Series Since Mailman's Days

2012-03-12T01:59:00.000-07:00

HOUSTON - Tracy McGrady leaned over in front of his bench as time ran out, his hands on his knees as he absorbed one more playoff failure. The young Utah Jazz, meanwhile, embraced one another and quietly celebrated after a 103-99 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night that gave them their first playoff series victory since the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.

Carlos Boozer had 35 points, 14 rebounds and five assists in Game 7 for the Jazz, who became only the seventh team since 2001 to come back from a 2-0 deficit and win a series. They're also just the 19th visiting team to win in 97 Game 7s in playoff history.

McGrady had 29 points and 13 assists, but the seven-time All-Star fell to 0-6 in the playoffs. The Rockets - his Rockets - blew a 2-0 lead for the second time in three seasons. They won twice in Dallas in 2005, then dropped the series in seven games.

The home team had won the previous six games in this series, but all the games at the Toyota Center had gone down to the wire.

This game was the closest one of all. This time, Boozer and the Jazz came up with the plays to finally break through.

Deron Williams had 20 points and 14 assists and Mehmet Okur scored 16 and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Utah, which is in the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

Boozer grabbed two key offensive rebounds in the final 90 seconds, then hit two free throws with 19.9 seconds left to seal the victory and silence the capacity crowd in Houston for the last time.

Yao Ming had 29 points and six rebounds and Shane Battier had 16 points and went 4-of-7 from 3-point range for the Rockets, who haven't won a playoff series since 1997.

The Jazz will open the second round against Golden State on Monday night in Salt Lake City. The teams split four games during the regular season.

The Rockets trailed by 16 in the first half as the Jazz threatened to turn the deciding game into a rout.

Yao and McGrady both came out attacking the basket in the second half, scoring 13 of Houston's first 15 points, all on dunks and layups.

Yao hyperextended his right knee trying to stop Williams on a drive and went to the floor. After a few nervous minutes for the fans, Yao stayed in the game and promptly blocked a Boozer shot.

The Jazz led 75-67 after three quarters, but Yao and McGrady each scored to start a 7-0 run in the opening minutes of the fourth.

Rafer Alston banked in a 3-pointer with 8:38 left to force an 80-80 tie. On the Rockets' next trip down, Yao got fouled on an offensive rebound and hit two free throws to give Houston its first lead since the opening minute.

Boozer and McGrady traded acrobatic shots over the next two minutes and Boozer cut Houston's lead to 88-85 on a strong drive past Battier. Juwan Howard missed a jumper at the other end before Andrei Kirilenko sank a 3-pointer with 5:05 remaining to tie the game at 88-all.

Two minutes later, Okur made a 3-pointer from the wing to give Utah the lead for good. The Rockets cut it to one twice, but Boozer outleaped the 7-foot-6 Yao for an offensive rebound.

Okur finished that possession with a 3-pointer from the wing, putting the Jazz up 99-95. Yao hit two free throws with 57.8 seconds left, but Boozer grabbed another offensive board and hit two free throws with 19.9 seconds to go.

Notes:@ The Jazz led all seven games at halftime. ... Hakeem Olajuwon, who led the Rockets to championships in 1994 and '95, had a courtside seat next to team owner Les Alexander. ... Utah beat Houston in the playoffs for the fourth time in six meetings.

Lamont cannot manage to downplay his debut

2012-03-07T05:56:00.001-08:00

ANAHEIM, Calif. Where was the ball? Gene Lamont had hishandshakes, his backslaps, his TV cameras, his first victory as amajor-league manager. But he didn't have the ceremonial baseball."I'm not sure where it is," he said, looking around his crowdedoffice for clues.

"Here," said Herm Schneider, walking in with the missingmemento. No longer burdened by the Bo Jackson hip project, the WhiteSox' trainer now has time to moonlight as a sentimental poet. So hetook it upon himself Tuesday to inscribe the most important ball ofGene Lamont's life.

And what a melodramatic piece of prose it was: "On this day ofApril 7th, Gene Lamont recorded his first win as skipper of theChicago White Sox. ChiSox 10, California Angels 4. WP - McDowell.LP - Langston."

"On this day?" Lamont said incredulously, looking at the ball."Am I dead or something? It sounds like my obituary."

Actually, it qualifies as his birth certificate, the beginningof what could be a special relationship with the Sox. No one knowsmuch about this quiet man from the wee Illinois town of Kirkland, butit is precisely his laid-back, small-town persona that could make himthe best of all managers for a veteran, pennant-driven ballclub.

On a night that offered glimpses of what the year could be - 10runs, 14 hits, five doubles, a monster show from Frank Thomas, morethan enough offense to offset subpar pitching - Lamont just sat back,watched and made his strategic contributions when necessary. Unlikepredecessor Jeff Torborg, he offers no rah-rah cheerleading, no"family" preaching. "I think he's the perfect manager for us,"Thomas said after the 10-4 victory over the hopeless Angels.

Perfect? Well, he is 1-0. But perfect?

"This club has changed a lot," Thomas explained. "We're notkids. This is a veteran team, and we need somebody like him to belaid-back and let us play. We don't need anyone to sit there andstress things to us. He's not concerned with screaming at us. Hetreats us like men, and we like him."

Indeed, it was Lamont's night, although that didn't occur tohim as he sat in the dugout before the game, eating sunflower seeds.That someone would suggest such a thing seemed to genuinely embarrasshim.

"This game's all about the players," he said before the game,gazing at the balloons and bunting inside Anaheim Stadium. "It's notabout Gene Lamont or any manager. It's about the athletes, thepersonalities."

As you become familiar with this unusually pleasant man, youwill know him as shy, inconspicuous and unfailingly humble. Butdon't think for a minute that Tuesday night wasn't the greatest ofLamont's baseball life, even though beautiful weather, a Disneylandlocation and 33,000 empty seats didn't make it seem much like OpeningNight.

You knew what it meant by the way he tapped his foot, the wayhe fidgeted and kept looking at his watch. He had waited 14 yearsfor this moment, running ballclubs in places like Fort Myers andJacksonville and Omaha, running the third-base coaching box inPittsburgh. He couldn't wait any longer. "Yeah, I'm nervous," hesaid. "But there's a big difference betwen being nervous and beingscared. I'm not scared."

His wife had wished him luck on the phone. Jim Leyland, hismentor from the Pirates, had sent him a telegram. Eddie Einhorn, oneof his bosses, had stopped by the dugout and offered a firmhandshake. An old friend in the stands told him to knock them dead.Lamont was anxious, ready to show the world he could manage. Thereare baseball people who don't know if Lamont can manage, such as thefive teams that rejected him for managerial jobs before the Soxfinally hired him. It was time to prove them wrong.

"My job is simply to keep this team focused every day," he saidof his philosophy. "The biggest thing I have to do is have themready."

Then, getting up from his seat, he said, "If there's one thingI can tell you, it's that we'll be aggressive. I have the guys to beaggressive."

On his first night, Lamont showed his aggressiveness. From thestart of this rout, Lamont was at work from the dugout rail, provinga $200,000-a-year manager still is important in a game of millionaireplayers.

It took exactly two innings for Lamont to impose hisaggressiveness - moving over runners, flashing steal signs,encouraging hell-bent baserunning, turning the Sox into a recklessoffense as they blasted balls to all corners.

It was not a night for Jack McDowell, who must be allergic toopeners, nor for George Bell, who went hitless and trails Sammy Sosa1-0. It was a night for Thomas and Tim Raines, Ozzie Guillen andlocal kid Michael Huff. It was a night for the Sox in general,Lamont specifically.

"I hope we can win a few more," he said, typically modest.

You suspect he will.

OUT & ABOUT

2012-03-07T03:25:00.001-08:00

Renowned folk singer/songwriter Tom Paxton will bring his songs,"written from the heart and the conscience," as fellow folk musicianJudy Collins put it, to the Beverly Arts Center tonight.

A voice of his generation, Paxton uses his music to address issuesof injustice and inhumanity and to celebrate the bonds of family,friends and community. He has penned a large body of work, …

WORLD at 1000GMT

2012-03-07T00:54:00.001-08:00

NEW THIS DIGEST:

INDONESIA-EXPLOSIONS. Blasts at Jakarta Ritz, Marriott kill 9, wound 50.

IRAN-ELECTION. Opposition seeks show of strength at Friday prayers.

PAKISTAN. Pakistani court clears Sharif in hijacking case.

AFGHANISTAN. Roadside bomb kills 11 Afghan civilians.

ITALY-POPE. Pope Benedict XVI fractures wrist in a fall.

ISRAEL-PROTESTS. Jerusalem police fear more ultra-Orthodox riots.

IRAQ. Three US soldiers killed in an attack on a base near Basra.

SPACE SHUTTLE. Endeavour to dock Friday with international space station

Torino, Genoa players banned after brawl

2012-03-06T06:12:00.001-08:00

Seven players from Torino and two from Genoa were banned for up to four matches after Sunday's game between the teams ended in a violent brawl.

Angelo Ogbonna and Marco Pisano from the Turin-based club received the harshest penalties imposed Tuesday by a sports judge, the Italian Football League said.

Genoa's Reuben Olivera received a three-match ban for taking part in the brawl that broke out after Torino's 3-2 home defeat.

Torino players Rolando Bianchi, Aimo Diana and Francesco Pratali were banned for two matches. Torino's Ignazio Abate and Blerim Dzemaili as well as Genoa's Ivan Jurich will also miss the next match for picking up red or yellow cards during the game.

The bans come at a key time for Torino, which is third from last in the standings and plays against AS Roma to avoid relegation in next Sunday's last match of the Serie A season.

Metro BRIEFINGS

2012-03-05T14:41:00.001-08:00

VICTIM NOT A SUSPECT: Detectives determined Friday that a 22-year-oldman they originally believed was shot and wounded during an armedrobbery on the Northwest Side was not the suspect they were seeking.The man arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital early Thursday with a gunshotwound to the left leg, and detectives suspected he was wounded by aplainclothes Chicago police officer in an exchange of gunfireWednesday night. However, ballistics tests showed that the bulletremoved from the man's leg during surgery was not fired from theofficer's handgun, detectives said. The man was involved in anothershooting incident Wednesday night, police said. The shoot-outoccurred when two plainclothes …

MORE SACRIFICES LIKELY FOR ALBANY CITY SCHOOLS.(Capital Region)

2012-03-05T11:56:00.001-08:00

ALBANY -- The Albany school district is going to need a bigger table.

Many significant cuts still loom in the district where the phrase "all possibilities are on the table" has become an unofficial mantra. For certain is the elimination of 100 positions, the trimming of academic offerings and band for third graders. And that still leaves a $6.4 million budget gap that must be closed, meaning that further and more painful reductions are still very much on the table.

The next round could include a 5 percent tax rate increase, the closure of the Eagle Point and Schuyler elementary schools and the closure of the administration's Academy Park headquarters …

PORT ACTIVITY.(BUSINESS)

2012-03-05T09:11:00.001-08:00

OUTBOUND:

Cosmoway: In port, 25,000 metric tons, grain, to Tunisia.Don Jon Marine: 2/22/2002, 500 metric tons, heavy lift, to East Coast.Lockwood: 2/25/2002, 500 metric …

Ford needs German fix.(News)(Brief Article)(Interview)

2012-03-05T06:31:00.001-08:00

Byline: Bradford Wernle

Earl Hesterberg returns to the US this month to replace the retiring Jim O'Connor as Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of marketing, sales and service. He spoke about Ford of Europe's progress during his five year as the division's marketing and sales boss with Automotive News Europe's Bradford Wernle during the recent launch of the Ford Focus in Italy.

What were your achievements at Ford of Europe?

Two things: We gained an attitude of working with our dealers as partners. The second thing has to do with the quality of our national sales company teams in each market. I think there were only eight local leaders when I …

Russia Cuts Travel Links With Georgia

2012-03-05T03:46:00.001-08:00

TBILISI, Georgia - Exasperated Georgians crowded at the capital's airport in disbelief Tuesday after Russia cut all travel links with the former Soviet republic in retaliation for detaining four of its military officers for espionage.

Moscow refused international pressure to lift the suspension of road, rail, air, maritime and postal links, saying Tbilisi deeply insulted it by arresting the officers. Georgia released the men Monday and they were permitted to return to Russia.

"One must not feed off Russia and insult it. The Georgian leadership must understand this," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

The punitive measures, which …

Flashback

2012-03-05T01:07:00.001-08:00

Highlights during the week of Feb. 3-9:

1944: Bing Crosby and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded"Swinging on a Star" in Los Angeles for Decca Records.

1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper"Richardson were killed in a plane crash in Iowa.

1964: The Beatles made their first live US television appearanceon "The Ed Sullivan Show." …

Shall we gather at the river: a photographic essay of believer's baptism by immersion.(Essay)

2012-03-04T22:27:00.001-08:00

Photographs of believer's baptism by immersion are rich, but underutilized resources for interpreting one of the most identifiable tenants of the Baptist faith. As a primary source, photographs provide unique evidence of baptismal services and reveal a dimension that words alone cannot. Details obtained from photographs support and supplement written documentation in official church records, correspondence, diaries, reports, newspapers, periodicals, and other archival sources.

Photography began in 1826 when Frenchman Nicephore Niepce invented a technique for creating an image on a pewter plate exposed to sunlight. In the decades that followed, portrait-style photographic prints were common, but long exposure times did not allow events with motion, like baptismal services, to be captured. By the turn of the twentieth century, photography had developed into a prominent and reliable medium for documenting a variety of people and events. (1)

Baptisms hold special meaning in the lives of believers. The process of being lowered into and raised up from the water represents a person's death to sin and resurrection to a new life in Christ. This article provides a sampling of photographs of baptismal services along with a brief description of each photograph. The photographs, some taken in the United States and others taken in other countries, emphasize the variety of baptismal practices among Baptists. Unless otherwise indicated images are from the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee.

Early Baptism Services

Visual depictions of early Baptist baptismal services are scarce, but sketches, drawings, and paintings offer some insight into where and how those services occurred. Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 illustrate eighteenth- and nineteenth-century baptisms in America, England, and Europe. Figure 1 is a sketch by commercial artist and Baptist layman Erwin M. Hearne, Jr. In the 1960s, the Southern Baptist Convention's Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources) commissioned Hearne to design a series of paintings titled the "Eight Great Moments in Baptist History." Later Hearne designed twenty-five pencil sketches of historic Baptist events for the SBC's Historical Commission, including this "Baptism at …

How to keep new moms a part of the workforce.(Perspective)

2012-03-04T19:44:00.001-08:00

Byline: Aaron Crecy

Demographic trends underscore the need for human resources departments to support the employee maternity population, not only to reduce health care costs but to address a host of related expenses such as turnover, absenteeism, leave time and productivity.

The United States is among just five of 173 nations that do not guarantee paid maternity leave, according to a recent study by Harvard University and McGill University researchers.

The study suggests that U.S. workplace policies are the weakest link among wealthy nations and aren't as strong as many low- and middle-income countries.

There has been a nearly 13% increase in the number of children being cared for by stay-at-home moms in less than a decade as well as a drop in the percentage of new …

COURT REINSTATES ATTEMPTED-MURDER INDICTMENT.(CAPITAL REGION)

2012-03-04T15:30:00.001-08:00

Byline: MELISSA GRACE Staff writer

The Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court has reinstated attempted murder charges against an Albany man who had been unable to appear before a grand jury because his lawyer couldn't reach him.

Shawn Moore, 23, was indicted in connection with a shooting on Clinton Avenue in May 1994. According to court papers, Moore's defense attorney was notified three days before the grand jury proceeding on his case but was unable to contact Moore because he was in the county jail.

Moore's attorney Paul Edwards argued the defendant was not given sufficient warning and therefore was denied his right to testify before the …

Editor's note.(Editorial)

2012-03-04T11:21:00.001-08:00

The dancing clown on our cover is happy to spread the joy of color and drawing, and invites you to join him. Grab up those pastels, crayons and colored pencils--it's happy times in the art room. Add some paint and some India ink, and we've got ourselves an art party!

Our Cover Story, "Fun with Yarnikin Dancers" (page 24), will get things started with fun and fanciful figures dancing across paper. Basic figure drawing and movement are the focus here, and kids really get into this clever technique--which starts with a piece of yarn, if you can believe it!

Creating a colorful, realistic rendering is just one of the goals of "Memories Make the Art Grow Fonder" …

Bangladesh vs. Pakistan

2012-03-04T08:33:00.001-08:00

Scoreboard Sunday after at stumps in the rain-shortened first limited-overs international between Pakistan and Bangladesh at Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium:

Pakistan Innings

Salman Butt c Hasan b Kapali 70

Kamran Akmal c Rahim b Mahmud 25

Younis Khan run out 0

Mohammad Yousuf c Razzak b Kapali 59

Shahid Afridi c Nafees b Kapali 20

Shoaib Malik b Razzak 9

Misbah-ul-Haq lbw Mortaza 39

Fawad Alam c Iqbal b Mortaza 2

Sohail Tanvir c Nafees b Razzak 2

Umar Gul not out 0

Wahab Riaz lbw Razzak 0

Extras: (1lb, 6w) 7

TOTAL: (all …

Americans Sweet on Italy's Affordable Asti

2012-03-04T05:30:00.001-08:00

It's sometimes sticky and sweet, almost never found on restaurantwine lists, but Americans buy and drink it, much to the delight ofwine store owners.

You rarely hear it talked about at wine gatherings, but it'ssecond only to Chianti in volume produced in Italy.

People don't talk about much; they just drink it: Asti Spumanti.Asti Spumanti is an affordable sparkling wine made for dessertdrinking.Americans abandoning heavy desserts and opting for fruit bowlswill find this wine a perfect accompaniment.Asti Spumanti usually will have a melon taste, honeydew orcantaloupe, with a honeysuckle floral aroma. It can be sweet tosemi-sweet, but usually there will be enough …

JCR keeps Heiwado's debts at A.

2012-03-04T02:45:00.001-08:00

(ADPnews) - Sep 13, 2010 - JCR confirmed on Monday its A rating with a "negative" outlook on the senior debts of Japanese retailer Heiwado Co Ltd (TYO:8276).

The agency also upheld the A rating on the company's bonds and the J-1 rating on its commercial paper programme.

Business environments surrounding Heiwado are becoming tougher as shown by its lower same-store sales in comparison with other companies in the same industry owing to the intensified competition in Shiga prefecture in which it has its stores primarily.

Although the company has strengthened its low-price appeal in the face of …

Noteworthy.(Capital Region)

2012-03-04T00:01:00.001-08:00

Skating party

The Town of Hoosick will host a roller skating party from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, for all area families. The party will be held at the town rink on Barton Avenue. Register with skate sizes with Kevin O'Malley at 686-9460 or at erccw100@hotmail.com; or Peg Bakaitis at 686-5796. If available, skaters are asked to bring helmets, knee and elbow pads. Refreshments will be available.

Community day this Sunday

The Congregational Church of Clinton Heights will hold a community fun day from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. The …

STEINBERG CLIENT HAS PLEA VACATED.(Local)

2012-03-03T21:16:00.001-08:00

Byline: Associated Press

A man who pleaded guilty to third-degree robbery in 1977 has succeeded in having the plea vacated because he was represented by convicted killer and disbarred lawyer Joel Steinberg.

The plea by Chin Min Foo, a teenager at the time, was vacated and dismissed by state Supreme Court Justice Harold Rothwax, who accepted his plea and subsequently sentenced the defendant to a maximum four years in prison.

Rothwax, who later presided at the trial in which Steinberg was convicted of first-degree manslaughter, ruled that Foo's Sixth Amendment right to counsel had been violated …

(null)

2012-03-03T18:32:00.001-08:00

A suspected pedophile targeted in an international manhunt was detained Thursday by police in the United States, Interpol announced.

The arrest was made two days after Interpol, the international police agency based in Lyon, France, appealed for public help to track down the man.

Interpol says the man was detained in Union City, New Jersey. The police agency identified the suspect as Wayne Nelson Corliss, 58, an actor who also goes by the stage name of Casey Wane.

Interpol said the man is suspected of sexually abusing at least three young boys from Southeast Asia. It said that photos seized by police in Norway in 2006 showed the man's alleged …

Sky is the limit for Airbus' double-decker jumbo

2012-03-03T15:44:00.001-08:00

AIRBUS' new double-decker jumbo A380 aircraft has been given thethumbs up by an influential body within the European Parliament.

The Sky and Space Intergroup which keeps Euro MPs up-to-date withinformation on aeronautics and space, gave the aerospace giant itssupport to build its biggest ever passenger plane.

Charles Champion, executive vice president of Airbus and programmedirector for the A380 project, was a guest speaker at theIntergroup's last meeting.

He said the Airbus A380, which will be partly built in Filton, …

'Footprint' a mix of traditional, modern.(Arts & Entertainment)

2012-03-03T13:00:00.001-08:00

Byline: TRESCA WEINSTEIN - Special to the Times Union

SCHENECTADY - South Africa must be an awfully misty country. Nearly every number in the song-and-dance spectacular "African Footprint," onstage Wednesday and again tonight at Proctors, is embellished with billowing fog.

But "African Footprint" isn't just smoke and ... well, more smoke. The troupe of 27 performers has charisma, talent and a Hollywood-style backstory. The company was founded when producer Richard Loring recruited two dozen young people from the streets of Soweto and put them through an intensive year of vocal and dance instruction. Their first performance, in December 1999, was for Nelson …

RICH PEPSI SERIES BEGINS TONIGHT.(Sports)

2012-03-03T10:17:00.001-08:00

August has arrived in Saratoga Springs, and at Saratoga Raceway that also means the beginning of the annual Pepsi Pacing series.

This year's Pepsi series, the highlight of the 1990 racing season, is geared toward local 3-to 6-year-old pacers with earnings of less than $25,000 in 1990. It carries a total purse of $155,000. The $35,000 first leg begins today and is split into four $8,750 divisions.

"It's the biggest thing here," says driver-trainer Wendell Donaway, who will drive KC's Saberhagen from the rail in today's fourth race. "I'm extremely happy to have something to put in. You don't get a chance to go for 30 or 40 thousand every day."

…

3rd border activist convicted in AZ border deaths

2012-03-03T07:33:00.001-08:00

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A third border activist has been convicted of killing a southern Arizona man and his young daughter in a 2009 home invasion.

A Pima County Superior Court jury on Friday found 44-year-old Albert Gaxiola guilty of first-degree murder.

Authorities say three people dressed as law enforcement officers forced their way into the victims' home in Arivaca (ayr-uh-VAH'-kuh), south of Tucson, on May 30, …

Fatal truck crash yields charges; Man accused of DWI, manslaughter is in jail after passenger dies.(Capital Region)

2012-03-03T02:36:00.001-08:00

Byline: KENNETH C. CROWE II - Staff Writer

POESTENKILL - The driver of a pickup truck was charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving after his passenger died when the vehicle flipped over Thursday night, State Police at Schodack said Friday.

Francis Thomas, 19, of Plank Road was pronounced dead at the scene by Investigator Michael Ziegler of the Rensselaer County Medical Examiner's Office.

Thomas was a passenger in the pickup driven by William Pendergast, 18, of Brunswick, troopers said. Pendergast is a student at Hudson Valley Community College.

Pendergast was driving west on Snyders Corners Road at 11:50 p.m. when he failed …

ACS raises bid for Germany's Hochtief

2012-03-02T23:52:00.001-08:00

BERLIN (AP) — Spanish construction firm ACS raised its takeover bid for Hochtief AG on Wednesday, hours after Germany's biggest builder officially recommended that shareholders reject its offer.

ACS said it was raising its offer by 12.5 percent after Hochtief said its initial bid, valued at €2.7 billion ($3.6 billion), is not "adequate from a financial perspective."

The management and supervisory boards "consider the strategic positioning of the independent Hochtief group and the prospects for the future promising," and cannot see how a takeover by ACS would improve Hochtief's market position, the company said.

Hochtief — Germany's biggest builder — already had made very …

Epoch Internet cuts Sales Force

2012-03-02T22:10:00.001-08:00

Irvine-based Internet service provider Epoch Internet recently cut "less than 50" workers from its direct sales force.

Spokeswoman Nancy McHugh said the company made the cuts as part of a renewed focus on reselling its network infrastructure to companies wishing to sell Internet service. Along with leasing space on its infrastructure, Epoch markets Internet services directly to businesses.

The company has said it plans to move to an expanded headquarters in the Irvine Spectrum, but had to postpone a $75 million debt offering due to unfavorable market conditions.

"We have plenty of money in the bank," McHugh said. The company did complete a $25 million private placement over the summer. For the first half of the year, Epoch had sales of $7 million and a $10 million loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Those salespeople who were cut had not met the company's production goals during the past 90 days, McHugh said. Prior to the cuts, Epoch had 265 workers and offices in seven states.

Risk scoring newest aid for AF.(Market Updates)(atrial fibrillation )

2012-03-02T19:27:00.001-08:00

Now patients with new onset of atrial fibrillation can be scored to estimate the risk of stroke or death, which could lead to appropriate treatments being administered earlier, according to a new research study. The classification system, which appears in an August issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), was derived from a study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, both affiliate organizations within the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland). The research was conducted at the Framingham Heart Study (Framingham, Massachusetts) on 868 patients with new onset of …

Wherefore Art Thou Homeo?

2012-03-02T18:33:00.001-08:00

DayQuil. Cold-Eeze. Sambucol. All three claim to help you cope with colds and the flu. But each represents a different class of remedy, and the Food and Drug Administration regulates each in a very different way. That affects how much you can trust the products' claims.

* DayQuil is an over-thecounter (OTC) medication. OTC manufacturers have to convince the FDA that any claims they make are supported by solid scientific evidence before their products hit the market. Since no OTC drug has been proven to prevent or shorten colds or the flu, OTC remedies can only claim to relieve symptoms. - Vou can generally trust OTC claims.

* Sambucol is a dietary supplement. (The FDA requires dietary supplements to say so on the label.) Dietary supplements can't make claims about relieving colds or the flu without prior FDA approval, but they can make vague "structure or function" claims, like "helps support the immune system," without having to prove that they're true.. .or that they make any difference. - Be skeptical of dietary supplement claims.

* Cold-Eeze is a homeopathic medicine. (The FDA requires homeopathic medicines to say so on the label.) Homeopathic remedies can claim to prevent or cure colds and the flu without having to show any proof to the FDA. Why?

Traditional homeopathic drugs aren't considered a safety hazard because they're diluted repeatedly until there's nothing left of their active ingredients. And in the past, few people used them. So, in 1 938, Congress exempted them from strict regulation.

But that no longer makes sense. Homeopathy has become a huge industry that sells its products by the millions to shoppers everywhere from Walmart to supermarkets to the Internet. And many (Cold-Eeze, for example) contain substantial amounts of active ingrethents.

"I seriously doubt if one-twentieth of the so-called homeopathic products sold in stores today have any basis in homeopathic principles," says Southern Illinois University's lohn Haller, an authority on the history of homeopathy. "That's homeopathy's dirty little secret." -Be skeptical of homeopathic medicine claims.

PR gov: 30,000 workers could be fired amid crisis

2012-03-02T16:43:00.001-08:00

More than 30,000 government employees _ about 14 percent of the public work force _ could lose their jobs and new taxes will be introduced as Puerto Rico attempts to shore up its ailing economy, the governor of the U.S. island territory announced Tuesday.

In a half-hour televised address, Gov. Luis Fortuno outlined a plan to cut a long-bloated work force _ excluding police officers and teachers _ and institute new taxes to increase revenue on the cash-strapped island, which is in its third year of recession.

The layoffs will begin on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year _ and are necessary even when taking into consideration the roughly $5 billion Puerto Rico is slated to receive from President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus package over the next two years, the governor said.

The government is Puerto Rico's main employer, with 218,000 people, or 21 percent of the work force on the island of 3.9 million inhabitants. Economic analysts have been advising Puerto Rico, which currently has a $3.2 billion budget deficit, to slash its sprawling public payroll for years.

"The government is too big and spends too much," Fortuno said. "Simply, the government has to be minimized."

The governor, a Republican who is the leader of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, said Puerto Rico was facing its most painful financial crisis in decades, and failing to take immediate action to rein in spending would push the economy into a depression.

Opposition legislators could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Fortuno said he did not have an exact number for how many workers would be let go but said he was "afraid" it would exceed 30,000. The total will depend on the success of a voluntary retirement offer and savings from wage and benefit freezes, he said.

"We all must confront the reality of a bankrupt government and work together to return progress, opportunity and your future to you. The government may be bankrupt, but Puerto Rico is not," said Fortuno, who declared a fiscal emergency shortly after taking office on Jan. 2.

Fortuno, who stressed that he was "conscious that this plan is painful," also pledged to reduce his own annual salary of $70,000 by 10 percent and that of his Cabinet officials by 5 percent over the next two years.

Among other measures affecting the public, he said he would implement a two-year moratorium on tax credits to businesses, except those involved in tourism, manufacturing, and films. Banks, corporations, and insurance companies, as well as islanders earning more than $100,000 annually, would have their income taxes boosted by 5 percent over two years.

Federico Torres Montalvo, president of one of the island's main labor unions, said the governor's proposals were intended to "dismantle public service and to give that space to the private companies." He said workers planned to protest Friday in front of La Fortaleza, a powder-blue mansion where governors have ruled since the 17th century.

Fortuno soundly defeated an incumbent tainted by federal corruption charges in November elections. During the gubernatorial campaign, Fortuno, 48, promised to reduce the tax rate and create thousands of private-sector jobs across the island, a U.S. commonwealth since 1952.

RIVERSIDE ASPIRATIONS

2012-03-02T16:25:00.001-08:00

YORK COUNTY

Wrightsville works to be a gateway to Susquehanna tourism

Wrightsville in York County is embarking on a waterfront development initiative that could help maximize its economic potential as a river town for visitors, and to attract and retain residents as the region grows.

In Northumberland and Dauphin counties to the north, the bigger cities of Sunbury and Harrisburg are along the river. In Lancaster and York counties, there is less development along the river in part because the bigger cities are not along its banks, said Jonathan Pinkerton, vice president of the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area.

The group promotes the value of the Susquehanna River, including as an economic driver for its neighboring communities.

Recreation helps attract people to live in an area. Once there are people, businesses such as restaurants move in, Pinkerton said.

"And the neat part about it is the infrastructure exists," he said. Buildings are available in the borough for businesses, Pinkerton said.

Companies catering to anglers, bird watchers, hikers and others also are possible, Pinkerton said.

"The river is out there. Now what can you do with it?" he said.

Wrightsville has been updating its comprehensive plan that will determine what shape growth will take in the borough during the next 10 to 15 years, Mayor Neil Habecker said.

The process showed that a serious developmentfocus shouldbe alongthe river. The waterfront has been broken out as its own component to Wrightsville's comprehensive plan strategies, Habecker said.

"It is one of our underutilized assets," he said.

Leveraging the waterfront, along with the borough's historic buildings along Routes 462 and 624, is a way to boost business development and to keep residential taxes low going forward, Habecker said.

Doing so can also help join Wrightsville to similar efforts in neighboring communities such as Columbia in Lancaster County.

The two boroughs and West Hempfield Township recently decided to retrograde the style of lighting on the Route 462 bridge that links the communities for a more historical appearance, Habecker said.

Wrightsville advocates began a factfinding study this fall to see what shape the riverfront initiative there should take, said Ann Yost, president of York-based YSM Landscape Architects.

The borough park along the river today has a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission boat ramp, baseball fields, a basketball court, a playground and a pavilion, she said.

The steering committee held meetings in the fall and plans to keep compiling ideas before a public meeting expected next year, Yost said.

There is a lot of history associated with the park, including the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, she said. But today the canal is overgrown and holds backwater.

So far, the steering committee plans to have walking trails be part of the design as well as improvements to the canal to better present it as a historic site.

Looking across the river shows what is possible when a river town starts taking advantage of its waterfront to attract visitors, Pinkerton said.

Officials finished the first phase of the Columbia River Park revitalization and expansion project earlier this year with good results, Mayor Leo Lutz said.

Developers installed a third lane in the park's boat ramp, and put in lights and floating docks serving as fishing piers. One is handicapped accessible, Lutz said.

A launch area for kayaks and canoes also was installed so those visitors do not have to compete with powerboats, he said.

"We opened it up on Memorial Day and the place was completely packed," he said.

Surveys since the project opened have shown visitors come from a fivecounty area of Pennsylvania and from Maryland, New Jersey and New York. Some visitors have come from as far away as Michigan and Virginia after visiting the greater region and searchingforsomethingto do on the Internet, Lutz said. Those visitors don't just stay at the park, he said.

Columbia has come up with an economic footprint strategy comprised of three development areas: the downtown, the historic district and the waterfront, said Theo Robinson, senior urban planner with the Lancaster County Planning Commission. He helped in the development of the development strategy in Columbia.

He said that, all too often, communities look outside of themselves for redevelopment ideas. But often, the ingrethents are right under foot, he said.

"What Columbia has done is a healthy approach" Robinson said. "It just all makes sense."

[Sidebar]

Mark Platts, president of Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area, checks the condition of an interpretive panel along the riverfront in Wrightsville, York County. Platts' organization promotes the cultural and economic value of the Susquehanna River in York and Lancaster counties.

[Sidebar]

"What Columbia has done is a healthy approach. It just all makes sense."

Theo Robinson, Lancaster County Planning Commission

[Author Affiliation]

BY BRENT BURKEY

brentb@journalpub.com

'Hacking 2.0' is vandalism with an element of danger

2012-03-02T14:34:00.001-08:00

Over the past few weeks we have seen increased coverage in the media of hacking events. Hacking has not increased, but now it's communal and public. I call it "hacking 2.0" when social media such as Twitter, YouTube and blogs are used to broadcast plundered private data, advertise hacking accomplishments, engage an audience and, yes, even make money.

At the forefront of this new brand of hacking is a group known asLulzSec. We first heard of it in April when it brought down the Sony PlayStation Network. Shocked and angry gamers demanded answers, and in early May, Sony's leadership apologized and ended up at a congressional hearing. In a letter to Rep. Bono Mack they stated, "Sony has been the victim of a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack."

As an information security professional, this was pure schadenfreude. I even developed an Internet crush on LulzSec. Why? Because what Sony was referring to as a highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack turned out to be one of the most common ways to attack a website: It is referred to as a SQL injection. You may not know the acronym SQL -- structured query language -- but chances are high you have used the acronym TMI -- too much information. It probably happened when someone divulged so much personal information he made you feel uncomfortable.

Well, websites can suffer from the same malaise. Most websiteshave a database on their back end, which stores information. Itcould be user names and passwords, a list of products or acustomer's contact information. In an SQL injection attack, theattacker enters information that the website is not well programmedto handle (e.g. instead of entering a user name, he enters an SQL query -- database speak). This leads to the website exposing TMI about the layout of the database behind it, which then allows an attacker to craft some more queries that could lead to the website "spilling its guts" and revealing gobs of sensitive data.

Yes, it's that simple. This is why I was not sympathetic toSony's woes because frankly, a company with Sony's size andresources should have taken better steps to secure its systems.

However, like most puppy love, my Internet crush on LulzSec has faded fast. Since the Sony hacks -- yes, there have been several -- LulzSec has attacked PBS, Atlanta InfraGard (an FBI affiliate), the CIA's public website, the Arizona State Police among others, all for the laughs.

I counted 45 instances of data "releases" on its website from itshacking spree. These include downloadable files of people's user names and passwords, names, addresses and internal documents from law enforcement officials that could jeopardize their initiatives or even worse -- their lives.

At this point this is just vandalism, and there's nothing newabout that.

***

Betsy Bevilacqua is the privacy and information security officer for a health solutions company in Western New York. The views expressed are her own.

6th LD-Writethru: Egypt's Mubarak says will not seek next term as protests upgrade

2012-03-02T12:44:00.001-08:00

6th LD-Writethru: Egypt's Mubarak says will not seek next term asprotests upgrade

by Li Zhihui, Omnia Al Desoukie, Lin Yan

CAIRO, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarakpledged Tuesday that he would not seek the next term in his speechto the nation which fell into chaos after eight days of anti-government demonstrations demanding an end of the president's 30-year rule.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded downtown Cairo sinceTuesday morning for a "march of one million," while other groups ofsmaller scales were calling for resumption of social order underleadership of the embattled president.

Demonstrators shouting slogans "Oust Mubarak" gathered in Tahrir,or liberation Square, which has become the center of protests as theopposition parties called for a general strike and a one-million-people march to the presidential palace after a week of unrest inthe country, as the army stood still to protect the people.

But Xinhua reporters said protesters remained in Tahrir square,while the presidential palace area was tightly protected by the armyand remained calm.

Mubarak reshuffled his government on Monday in an attempt todefuse the week-long protest against his regime, but protestersrejected the changes and said he must surrender power.

Many mini-buses carrying protestors moved from Helwan governorateto downtown Cairo at midday Tuesday to join the protestors. A mancarried a picture depicting Mubarak as Adolf Hitler.

Despite opposition parties' call for an indefinite strike and aone-million-people march to the presidential palace, some Egyptianintellectuals distributed leaflets among protestors, urging peopleto stay away from "violence" and "chaos."

"The continuation of chaos will only deepen people's sufferingand provide chances for looting and other crimes," one of theleaflets read. "This is our Egypt. We must safeguard the country andpeople."

While a sea of protestors were carpeting the Tahrir Square, about1,000 people gathered near the Foreign Ministry to support Mubarak,saying he is the only man who is capable of keeping the societystable amid the turmoil.

Supporters shouted "Yes, Mubarak," played music and raised apolice officer when marching along the Nile.

"The opposition parties do not want our life back to normalunless Mubarak leaves, but what will happen after that? Obviouslychaos," said a tourist guide who gave his name Muhamed. "I have toarm with knifes at night, for the first time in my life, to protectmy family and neighbors. Definitely we need reforms, but we do notwant changes that deprive us of peaceful life."

For the past few days, Egyptians have not agreed on Mubarak'sfuture fate. Hundreds of thousands are protesting, but many othersbelieve Mubarak shouldn't depart unless he restores the country'sstability.

"Those people are just giving the opportunity to people likeElBaradei to make use of us. Mubarak should leave after his periodis over," said a 23-year-old protester.

Conflicts among people of different interests occurred at somecheck points. "We want to go to work. Can't you people understand? "shouted a man to anti-government crowds.

Unlike last Friday's protests, there has been little policepresence in streets Tuesday, giving protesters a wider freedom toexpress their opinions without tear gas or water canons. To preventdisturbance of social order, local groups took over the streets,checking luggage and people's IDs.

UNREST HITS ECONOMY

Egypt endured another day of halt to normal life as the protestentered the second week. Trains stopped running Monday. The internetremained shutdown on its fifth day. Banks, stock markets and mostbusinesses were closed. Egyptian pounds reached the lowest rate insix years.

Storage racks for bread, milk, edible oil and local fruits werealmost empty in Cairo's supermarkets as people tried to replenishtheir stores for fear that the chaos could continue and prices couldrise.

Tourism, a crucial source of Egypt's revenue, was hit hard by theprotest. This is high season for tourists from Europe to enjoy thesunshine by the Red Sea, but foreign governments have warned theirnationals against travel to Egypt and scrambling to take thestranded tourists back home.

Many tour agencies have suspended services and the EgyptAir hascancelled flights during the government-imposed curfew which hasbeen extended from 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) to 8 a.m. (0600 GMT).

Some foreign firms suspended their activities due to paralyzedinternet and lack of workers in the unrest.

"I have closed the factory. I don't know when the social ordercan be back to normal," said Zhou Jianguo, a Chinese owner of amotorbike manufacturing factory in Cairo's Nasr City. "It is soshocking that a peaceful country can suddenly fall to chaos. I'mreally worried about the investment environment of Egypt."

Responding to fears of economic difficulties, newly-appointedPrime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said Tuesday the new government iscommitted to meeting all people's demands despite existing conflictof interests.

Banks will be open once security and stability are restored inthe country, he said, adding that measures have been taken toprotect banks against looting.

OPPOSITION PARTIES SEEK MORE

Despite the appointment of Egypt's first-ever vice president in30 years and the government's offer for talks with all politicalforces, opposition parties said there would be no dialogue unlessMubarak resigns.

Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradeisaid Tuesday he hoped Mubarak could leave by Friday.

"I hope President Mubarak goes before this and leaves the countryafter 30 years of rule... I don't think he wants to see more blood,"ElBaradei said.

He joined forces with the largest opposition group MuslimBrotherhood and other major political parties.

"We have already formed a coalition made up of 10 peopleincluding Mohamed ElBaradei for dialogue with the regime but onlyafter Mubarak steps down," said Mohamed El Beltagy, a senior memberof the Brotherhood.

Opposition members also called for constitutional amendments anddissolution of parliament as election results are described as"incorrect."

Experts said people would not retreat after the new cabinet wasestablished.

"People are asking for ousting the whole regime and formingunited coalition for peaceful transition," said Dr. Raffatt Sayd,head of Tagammu Party.

What makes a trustworthy paper?

2012-03-02T10:54:00.001-08:00

ALL NEWS media - newspapers, television, radio, newsmagazines,Internet news sites, etc. - report current happenings. But newspaperstraditionally hold an added role: exposing wrongs and seekingreforms.

The Charleston Gazette has a longtime reputation as WestVirginia's foremost "fighting newspaper." This identity grewespecially during the quarter-century when the late W.E. "Ned"Chilton III was publisher.

Crusading was part of his nature. He was an early champion ofequality for blacks, and never stopped blasting racial barriers. Hewas a fierce enemy of political sleaze, and demanded accountabilityby officeholders. While other West Virginia newspapers ignored racismin their cities or endorsed tainted politicos for re-election,Chilton spurred the Gazette into attack mode.

He battled the "ghoul system" that bled estates of the dead. Hesued state agencies to make them stop hiding government actions. Hedemanded creation of a 911 emergency dialing system to save lives. Hedenounced employers who knowingly exposed workers to lethal asbestosand other perils. He clamored against deadly drunken driving,consumer frauds, crooked TV evangelists, etc., etc. None of theseonslaughts was designed to enrich a particular group. Their only goalwas the public good.

Under Chilton, the Gazette became the only West Virginia newspaperwith a full-time investigative reporter - and it still is.

Some smaller West Virginia papers seem content to report localevents and avoid rocking the boat. But I think no paper does its dutyunless it digs hard into crucial issues facing local people. Today,as our staff produces the Gazette 365 days a year, we try to keepthis spirit embedded in it.

An aggressive newspaper helps set the public agenda byspotlighting troubles. When a paper reports a problem - say, wide-open gambling on illegal and untaxed "video poker" machines, orsystematic evasion of Workers' Compensation obligations, oroverweight coal trucks that kill people and destroy roads - politicalleaders can't look the other way, as if they never heard of it.

However - and here's the point of this column - a newspaper can'tbe effective for reform unless it is trustworthy. Its articles andeditorials must be based on solid facts, not hunches orexaggerations. Even as a paper demands actions, it must print allopposing views, giving everyone a chance to be heard. (If one of ourinvestigations finds evidence against a person or group, we alwaysgive the person or group a chance to rebut, before printing.)

If these safeguards aren't followed, the public may begin to see anewspaper as distorted or slanted. That's the kiss of death. Such apaper becomes untrustworthy in the eyes of many.

Recently, a Charleston lawyer wrote that logging and strip miningtriggered the severe floods in southern counties - and that Chiltonwould be "screaming in the Capitol Rotunda" if he were alive.

Well, I have a hunch that the lawyer is at least partly rightabout logging and stripping - but it's mostly a hunch. Everyone knowsthat rain runoff is hastened by any major disturbance of forestcover. But how much did the disturbances worsen the West Virginiahorrors? That's the crucial question.

After the 2001 flood tragedy, Gov. Wise appointed a task force tolearn whether logging and stripping were a deadly factor, or a fringefactor. Like most of bureaucracy, the task force isn't veryeffective. It failed to issue its report on time, and was granted adelay until July 1. Although that deadline is near, the group won'treveal a hint of its conclusions.

Last year, environmental reporter Ken Ward Jr. used the Freedom ofInformation Act to obtain thousands of pages of pending federalresearch projecting varied degrees of flood-worsening below thevalley fills of mountaintop removal mines.

Last week, Sen. Jay Rockefeller issued a statement saying "it'sdifficult to draw definite conclusions at this point about factorsthat may have contributed to the severity of the flooding." Few otherstate leaders have even mentioned the extremely important question.

With so much at stake, why aren't authorities trying harder to getsolid facts? I can't imagine a more urgent topic. If evidence showsclearly that logging-stripping ravages drowned mountain families anddestroyed thousands of homes, we will "scream in the CapitolRotunda." Not doing so would be a dereliction of duty.

But, until then, a sense of responsibility makes us hesitate todeclare a definite conclusion.

After our primary duty of reporting the news, the Gazette iscommitted to perpetual struggling against dangers and injustices. Butit also wants to be totally trustworthy in the process.

Haught is the Gazette's editor.

Vic: Opposition questions $495,000 contract to lawyer

2012-03-02T09:03:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2004
Vic: Opposition questions $495,000 contract to lawyer

MELBOURNE, Aug 3 AAP - The appointment of a Melbourne lawyer to a $495,000 Victorian
government consultancy position without a tender process was a "massive conflict of interest",
a state opposition frontbencher said.

Premier Steve Bracks and Transport Minister Peter Batchelor must explain why Hawthorn
lawyer Trevor Lloyd was hired for a 14-month $495,000 position with the Department of
Infrastructure (DOI), opposition scrutiny of government spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva said
today.

Mr Lloyd was the company secretary and general counsel for financial group AXA Asia
Pacific and was a former partner in law firms Holding Redlich and Dunhill Madden Butler
(Melbourne).

Scant details of the contract published on the DOI website showed Mr Lloyd was hired
to provide "strategic advice on departmental executive processes and other matters".

The contract began on April 27 and will end on June 30 next year.

Dalla-Riva said Mr Lloyd would review the structure of the DOI's legal services division,
which had six employees.

In June, Mr Lloyd was appointed by Mr Batchelor as independent chair of the board overseeing
the redevelopment of the Port of Melbourne and the Dynon Road precinct.

Mr Dalla-Riva said the contract description was meaningless and went against the open
government principles promised by Mr Bracks before he won power.

"Without question this is a massive conflict of interest," he said.

"The Bracks government, and more particularly Peter Batchelor, need to explain fully
why this man was employed, his terms of reference and the framework in which he is working
and his relationship and affiliation with the ALP.

"What qualifies him as suitable for this consultancy?

"This gentleman has been engaged under the Department of Infrastructure, the same Department
of Infrastructure that has increased its executive numbers from 72 to 93 overall last
financial year and has increased its salary base for executives from $8.8 million to $10.5
million.

"At the same time, they have engaged this consultant - and no one knows what he is
doing beyond rumour and innuendo - for 14 months and he is being paid almost half a million
dollars."

Mr Lloyd was not immediately available for comment.

A DOI spokeswoman said the $495,000 figure was a limit for payments to Mr Lloyd, who
would be paid only for billable hours of work.

Mr Lloyd would oversee the legal services division and to address "a suite of issues"

in the DOI's $15 billion major projects portfolio.

The DOI issued a certificate of waiver to allow Mr Lloyd to be hired without a tender
process because he was "the only known candidate in Victoria who was also available".

AAP jrd/gfr/bes/bwl

KEYWORD: CONTRACT

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Camden maternity staff says no problem

2012-03-02T07:12:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
02-22-2004
NSW: Camden maternity staff says no problem

Staff at a Sydney hospital have denied claims by medical specialists that its maternity
ward is operating dangerously.

The Australian Medical Association's New South Wales branch says it relayed anaesthetists'
concerns about Camden Hospital unit to Health Minister MORRIS IEMMA in a letter on December
the 17th last year.

But the ANA says their …

Vic: Praise for water frugal public

2012-03-02T03:08:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-31-2003
Vic: Praise for water frugal public

By Royal Abbott

MELBOURNE, Dec 31 AAP - Victorians have reduced their water consumption by 10 per cent
this year through both voluntary and mandatory restrictions, saving enough to fill Melbourne's
Albert Park Lake more than 60 times.

Environment Minister John Thwaites said Victorians were well on the way to meeting
the government's 2010 target of reducing annual water use by 15 per cent.

"The public has already shown it takes water conservation seriously by a positive response
to water restrictions and the taking up of rebates offered for buying water efficient
devices," Mr Thwaites said.

"The result has been a saving of more than 46,000 megalitres (46 billion litres) on
our expected water usage this year - that's the equivalent of filling Albert Park Lake
more than 60 times."

Water restrictions on Melbourne residents would be reviewed during January, Mr Thwaites said.

But the public was being encouraged to permanently adopt more frugal habits, since
it would take five years worth of average rainfall to fill Melbourne's water storages.

Water storage levels were currently at 56.7 per cent, Mr Thwaites said, and the new
year was an excellent time to add water conservation to lists of resolutions for 2004.

He said about 11,000 people had applied for rebates for installing rainwater tanks
or other water-saving devices.

Meanwhile, Mr Thwaites had his own list of suggestions for water conservation.

Gardeners were encouraged to add thick layers of mulch to planting beds and asked to
check the weather forecast for rain before watering the garden.

Householders could save water by hanging timers in the bathroom and resolving to cut
down on the time spent showering each day.

Substantial savings could also be made by never allowing the tap to run freely while
brushing teeth.

The household cook was encouraged to wash fruit and vegetables in a bowl and empty
the water into the garden.

Car owners were asked to make full use of buckets and squeegees at service stations
when filling up their vehicles.

And homeowners were asked to save water by sweeping outside areas rather than hosing them.

Mr Thwaites said suggestions the government build more water storage dams were misguided.

"Building another dam is not the answer," he said.

"A dam doesn't create water, it has to come from somewhere, and a dam would simply
take water away from others, like farmers.

"We need to use less, not store more," he said.

AAP ra/dk/tma/de

KEYWORD: WATER VIC

2003 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Feuding rabbis should stop harassing each other, says judge

2012-03-02T01:17:00.001-08:00

00-00-0000
NSW: Feuding rabbis should stop harassing each other, says judge

By Kim Arlington

SYDNEY, Aug 21 AAP - A NSW Supreme Court judge today urged mining magnate Joseph Gutnickand his brother-in-law, Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, to stop "harassing each other" as theirlegal battle continued.

The pair are feuding over a $5 million loan Mr Gutnick provided in 1994 to bail outthe Yeshiva group of properties, including religious schools and a synagogue, at Bondiin Sydney's east.

Rabbi Feldman and his wife, Pnina - Mr Gutnick's sister - are Yeshiva directors.

Last month NSW Supreme Court Judge Peter Young ordered Rabbi Feldman to repay the loan,worth $15 million with interest and costs.

Rabbi Feldman took the case to an Israeli rabbinical court, or Beth Din, which threatenedto excommunicate Mr Gutnick unless he froze legal proceedings in Australia.

The Beth Din issued an order to excommunicate Mr Gutnick, who is also a rabbi, on July 15.

Mr Gutnick then launched contempt of court proceedings against Rabbi Feldman, claiminghe was excommunicated from the Jewish faith in retaliation for pursuing legal proceedings.

The case to determine whether Rabbi Feldman's actions constitute contempt is yet tobe heard, but Justice Young today declined to grant an injunction to intervene.

Justice Young said "the excommunication is very emotionally and spiritually concerning"

to Mr Gutnick, who was excommunicated "at the prompting of a representative" of RabbiFeldman or Yeshiva.

He also noted that "the pressure about excommunication commenced before the (NSW SupremeCourt) proceedings started and then (was) reactivated, possibly by way of revenge, afterthe case proper was finished".

"It may be that the trial judge will conclude that there was a threat before the litigationwhich was carried out in a spirit of revenge afterwards," Justice Young said.

He did not grant the injunction partly because the contempt case was due to be heardnext week, but it has now been adjourned for at least a month.

The case will also consider Mr Gutnick's allegation that Rabbi Feldman and Yeshivawere "deliberately mounting a press campaign" to persuade the public that Mr Gutnick wasexcommunicated after reneging on an agreement to have all disputes determined by the BethDin.

Justice Young said he was "not satisfied that there is an arguable case of scandalisingthe court" in relation to the allegation.

He ordered that the costs of the application for the injunction be taken into accountin costs for the contempt case.

"Of course, it would be even better if the parties stopped harassing each other andabandoned the impugned conduct on the one side and abandoned the contempt proceedingson the other," Justice Young said.

AAP ka/nf/sjb/br

KEYWORD: GUTNICK

WA: Two in WA under microscope for SARS

2012-03-01T23:28:00.001-08:00

00-00-0000
WA: Two in WA under microscope for SARS

Two people are under investigation in Perth hospitals for a deadly flu-like illness.

A 44-year-old man was admitted to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital overnight with suspectedsevere acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

He underwent tests today.

Meanwhile, a 57-year-old woman remains under investigation in Fremantle Hospital.

The West Australia Health Department is testing as a precaution all people who presentwith symptoms of SARS after being in affected areas.

AAP RTV lk/wz/rp

KEYWORD: SARS WA (PERTH)

Fed: Houses destroyed in ACt fires now 402

2012-03-01T21:40:00.001-08:00

00-00-0000
Fed: Houses destroyed in ACt fires now 402

Federal Police say the number of houses destroyed in …

Fed: Study shows Telstra and Optus overbilling billions

2012-03-01T20:02:00.001-08:00

00-00-0000
Fed: Study shows Telstra and Optus overbilling billions

A new study reportedly shows Telstra and Optus are overcharging Australians more than$2.3 billion a year.

The Sunday Herald Sun reports the confidential study by international telecom consultantVircom says the overbilling ranges from four per cent to 24 per cent, with an averagediscrepancy of 12 per cent.

The study has found the overcharging happens because new services, products and rateplans are being introduced faster than computerised billing systems can be adapted.

The report says the problem is getting worse and the companies are unwilling or unable to fix it.

The Herald Sun says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission hasn't beenaware of the figures but is now investigating to see whether the Trade Practices Act hasbeen breached.

A Telstra spokesman rejects the $2.3 billion figure as nonsensical and an Optus spokesmansays the company hasn't heard of the report.

AAP RTV sjg/ldj

KEYWORD: TELSTRA (MELBOURNE)

NSW: Main stories in today's Sydney newspapers=3

2012-03-01T18:30:00.001-08:00

00-00-0000
NSW: Main stories in today's Sydney newspapers=3

SYDNEY, April 23 AAP - The main stories in today's Sydney newspapers:

AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1 - Australia's largest medical insurer warns it will collapse unless the federalgovernment is prepared to extend its support beyond June 30 when new members subscriptionsare due. Telstra has suffered a double blow to its market power with the federal governmentmoving to prevent it from cross-subsidising its basic phone business and appealing againstregulatory decisions. Westpac has bought Rothschild Australia Asset Management for $323million.

Page 2 - Contents

Page 3 - The Victorian push to introduce Australia's first criminal charge of industrialmanslaughter is doomed after the state Liberal Opposition said it would vote against themove. The board of national law firm Clayton Utz has launched a sweeping internal reviewfollowing damning findings by a Victorian Supreme Court judge in the British AmericanTobacco document shredding case.

World: France could harden its resistance to desperately needed economic reforms asa result of Sunday's stunning performance by the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen in the firstround of the presidential election.

Markets: Emerging markets have been the winning sharemarkets globally so far in 2002,while major European and US markets have continued to underperform.

AAP tnf/mjm

KEYWORD: FRONTERS NSW 3 SYDNEY (REOPENS)

Fed: Editorial protection a goal of media law changes says PM

2012-03-01T16:59:00.001-08:00

00-00-0000
Fed: Editorial protection a goal of media law changes says PM

Prime Minister JOHN HOWARD says the federal government will consider introducing safeguardsfor editorial independence if it relaxes media ownership laws.

The Howard government has indicated that changing media ownership laws will be oneof its priorities in its third term in office.

The prime minister has told the Nine Network the government is thinking about possiblechanges to cross-media laws and foreign ownership.

He says they'd have to get rid of the prohibition whereby a newspaper owner can't owna television station or vice versa, and would relax the restrictions on foreign mediainvestment.

Mr HOWARD says the government is still working through details of the proposed BroadcastingServices Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill.

But he says one of the goals of the bill is to protect editorial independence.

AAP RTV so/jmt

KEYWORD: MEDIA HOWARD (CANBERRA)

Fed: Asylum seekers to move ashore to Cocos Islands

2012-03-01T15:28:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2001
Fed: Asylum seekers to move ashore to Cocos Islands

The Federal Government says a group of about 70 asylum seekers moored near the Australian
territory of Cocos Islands are expected to be taken to the island within 24 hours.

The Sri Lankan men aboard the boat will join a group of 63 other asylum seekers on
Cocos, in the Indian Ocean.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister PHILIP RUDDOCK says it is expected they will be
taken to the old quarantine station.

Cocos Shire Council chief executive officer BOB JARVIS has told ABC there are adequate
barracks and housing for the men.

Australian Federal Police spotted the boat people aboard a rickety vessel on Sunday,
and directed them to a buoy at Direction Island in the Cocos Keeling Islands group, 2,100
km from Western Australia.

The asylum seekers told authorities their crew fled aboard a second boat.

Authorities are uncertain about the veracity of the statement, or if the crew is still
among the group aboard the detained vessel.

AAP RTV lm/aa/rt

KEYWORD: BOAT COCOS (CANBERRA)

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Hundreds jump for charity

2012-03-01T13:56:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
04-28-2001
NSW: Hundreds jump for charity

Hundreds of people are jumping off the Regent Hotel in Sydney's CBD this weekend as
part of a series of events to raise money for charity.

The HEARTSTOPPER and LEAP OF FAITH fundraising events for Mission Australia are taking
place across Australia this weekend.

Organisers estimate about $300,000 will be raised by the event with more than 500 people
taking the plunge over the two days.

Money raised will go toward helping the homeless throughout NSW.

Participants in HEARTSTOPPER abseiled down the side of the 36-storey high Regent Hotel.

And LEAP OF FAITH involves walking out along a four metre steel girder that extends
from the roof of the hotel and leaping one metre in the air to ring a bell before free-falling
for half the height of the building.

Safety ropes and brake harnesses will slow the decent before participants are gently
lowered to the ground.

This is the sixth year HEARTSTOPPER has been run and the first for LEAP OF FAITH.

AAP RTV fs/as/kb

KEYWORD: HEART (SYDNEY)

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

QLD: No voluntary euthanasia, says Watson

2012-03-01T12:24:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
02-14-2001
QLD: No voluntary euthanasia, says Watson

BRISBANE, Feb 14 AAP - Queensland Liberal leader David Watson said today he did not
favour voluntary euthanasia but understood there was some community support.

Speaking on ABC radio, Dr Watson said: "I have always been concerned about setting
up mechanisms where the state allows you to take your life.

"I have severe reservations about about that."

Dr Watson's views were in contrast to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who yesterday
supported voluntary euthanasia.

Ms Hanson said people should have the right to choose to "die in dignity" and it was
not up to politicians to legislate on the issue.

Dr Watson said the Liberal Party allowed a conscience vote on the matter.

"This provides an opportunity for individuals to make their decision and I think there
are diverse views," he said.

AAP geb/sc/br

KEYWORD: POLLQLD EUTHANASIA

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Ancient trees reveal Australia once wetter, botanist says

2012-03-01T10:53:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-2000
NSW: Ancient trees reveal Australia once wetter, botanist says

A botanist, who has discovered a prehistoric tree species in northern New South Wales,
says the plant demonstrates that Australia was once a cool, wet continent.

Local man ROBERT KOOYMAN discovered the newly christened Nightcap Oak in the Nightcap
Range, near Byron Bay, after 12 years of research.

Mr KOOYMAN, a PHD student, says the group of 20 mature trees provides an amazing insight
into the evolution of the continent.

He says he thinks many people forget, or are unaware, that Australia was once moist,
cooler and covered in rainforest.

Mr KOOYMAN discovered the mature trees last August, 12 years after sending clippings
of a juvenile plant to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The genus, Eidothea, are living fossils of rainforests which once covered the ancient
supercontinent of Gondwanaland, which consisted of Australia, Africa, South America, Antarctica
and New Zealand.

The Nightcap Oak can grow to up to 40 metres tall, with a diameter of around 75 centimetres.

It has nuts that Mr KOOYMAN describes as being similar to macadamia nuts and primitive
flowers with a faint scent of sweet aniseed.

AAP RTV art/jjs/jn t

KEYWORD: RAINFOREST (SYDNEY)

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Diary for Thursday August 3, 2000

2012-03-01T09:21:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2000
Diary for Thursday August 3, 2000
EVENTS ARE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER AND IN LOCAL TIME UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE

ADELAIDE

0900 - Opening of the first National Health Online Summit (3-4), Stamford Plaza, 150 North
Terrace. Contact: Sophie Davey 02 6289 5651.

BRISBANE

0900 - Penfolds Wine Clinic, the Sheraton Brisbane Hotel and Towers, 249 Turbot Street,
Brisbane. Contact: Katherine Ward 0404 075 681.

0900 - Local Government Minister Terry Mackenroth to address the Australian Local Government
Women's Association Qld Division conference, Memorial Hall, Kennedy Street, Kilcoy. Contact:
3235 4370.

1030 - Herron Pharmaceuticals to launch advanced form of paracetamol, Herron Pharmaceuticals,
17 Curzon Street, Tennyson. Contact: Lee McLean 0411 868 348.

CANBERRA

1030 - ACT finals of `Piazza d'Oro Barista of the year competition 2000', Hyatt Hotel,
Yarralumla, Canberra. Contact: Daniela Ilayson 02 9954 4808 / 0417 213 227.

1100 - CSIRO acting chief executive Colin Adam and Office of Government Online chief executive
Glenys Roper to announce new electronic commerce collaboration between CSIRO and OGO,
Industry Link Room, Discovery Centre, Clunies Ross Street, Canberra. Contact: Wendy Parsons
02 6276 6615.

1200 - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Ashton Calvert to address the
Press Club on "Australia's Foreign and Trade Policy Agenda", National Press Club, 16 National
Circuit, Barton. No contact listed.

1230 - Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) chairman Michael MacKellar to release
for public comment the publication "Safe Food Australia", Mural Hall, Parliament House,
Canberra. Contact: Michael Dack 02 6271 2239 / 0414 907 860.

1330 - Media conference with the Matildas (Womens Football Team) before they leave for
North Korea and China - their last engagement before the Olympics, Theatrette, Australian
Institute of Sport, Leverrier Cres, Bruce, Canberra. Contact: Janene Mar 02 6281 7999
/ 0409 603 093.

MELBOURNE

1030 - Former Olympic gold medallist Herb Elliott to accept $2 million fundraising cheque
from dairy company Bonlac Foods for the Australian Olympic team, Collingwood Children's
Inner City Farm, St Helliers Street, Abbotsford. Contact: Thane Dumbrell 9682 1166 / 0413
526 248.

1100 - Press conference with Mayor of Whitehorse, Jessie McCallum, and former Australian
Junior Champion chess player David Cordover on the Australian Open Rapid-Play Chess Championships,
Whitehorse Civic Centre, 379 Whitehorse Road, Nunawading. Contact: David Cordover 9576
8177 / 0411 877 833.

1130 - Tattersall's Award for Enterprise and Achievement presentation to Caulfield couple
recognised for a lifetime of care, National Council of Jewish Women of Victoria, 133 Hawthorn
Road, Caulfield. Contact: Belinda Dennett 8517 7408.

1300 - Treasurer John Brumby to launch first community-owned telecommunications company
Bendigo Community Telco, Bendigo Art Gallery, View Street, Bendigo. Contact: Emma McKenzie
5433 9279 / 0407 533 509.

1930 - Public information session on new Residential Development Code, Ivanhoe, The Centre,
Streeton Room. Contact: Sandra McKay 9651 5799 / 0408 120 068.

PERTH

0930 - Meeting of research scientists involved in a project that could increase the value
of the Australian marron industry, University of WA's Centre for Water Research. Contact:
Jenny Hodder 08 9482 7283 / 0418 901 767.

0930 - Announcement by WA Employment Minister Mike Board and federal Education Minister
David Kemp of the expansion of a traineeship program for Aboriginal high school students,
Midland College of TAFE's The Junction art gallery (N Block), Lloyd Street, Midland. Contact
Tamatha Smith 08 9222 9211 or 0409 592 138.

1030 - Launch of The Business/Higher Education Round Table Report No 5 with Education
Minister David Kemp, Council Chamber, Curtin University of Technology, Bentley Campus.

Contact: Prof Peter Kenyon 08 9266 7683.

1100 - New apprenticeships to visit the Vines Resort, along with Education Minister David
Kemp, Verdelho Drive, The Vines. Contact: 02 6277 7460 / 0412 918 110.

SYDNEY

No time listed - 150 Australian army paratroopers to parachute over the Singleton Range
in the Hunter Valley tomorrow morning for the first time since their return from peacekeeping
duties in East Timor. Defence Public Affairs will cover the exercise for all, Betacam
and stills available. Contact: Stephen Delaney (02) 9339 3008, 0411 445 136.

Time not given - Briefing on the Government's Defence White Paper. Contact: Graham Kearns
02 6266 7489.

0800 - Professor Robert Barney to speak at the UTS 2000 Lecture Series on "The Origins
of the Olympic Victory Podium", Glasshouse Bar, Level 3, No 1 Broadway (Tower Building).

Contact: Janet Cahill 9514 7810.

1000 - Launch of world-first scheme to provide recycled water to the Olympic Games and
the neighbouring suburb of Newington, OCA's WRAMS Projects Office, Sydney Olympic Park,
Marjorie Jackson Boulevard, Homebush Bay. Meet in carpark. Confirmation essential. Steven
Andrew 9297 2111 or 0417 665 649.

1030 - HMAS Hobart to leave Sydney for the last time under tow to South Australia. Media
should meet at the fleet base entrance, Cowper Wharf Road, Wolloomooloo by 0815. Contact
Ross Gillett 9359 2787, 0411 203 578.

1130 - Fair Trading Minister John Watkins to launch an investigation into a pool-cleaning
system which sucked a young girl to the bottom of a swimming girl and held her there.

The girl will speak about the incident. Cook and Philip Pool, College Street, Sydney.

Contact: Paul Childs 9228 4866, 0411 263 661.

1200 - Official preview of Australian Icons: A panorama of the finest moments in Australian
art, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Contact: 9225 1734 / 0414 437 588.

1200 - Sydney Theatre Company 2001 Season Launch of Out of the Blue with Robyn Nevin,
Ruth Cracknell and Gary McDonald, Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Pier 4, Hickson
Road, Walsh Bay. Contact: Patrick Shand 9250 1703 / 0402 201 823.

1830 - Unicef Art Auction, Ken Done Gallery, 1 Hickson Road, The Rocks. Contact: 9957 6869.

SPORT

BOWLS -
Australia v Ireland, Warilla, NSW
GALLOPS -
Wyong
Flemington
Gold Coast
Murray Bridge
Belmont
TROTS -
Geelong
Gold Coast
Fairfield
GREYHOUNDS -
Dapto
Sandown
Albion Park
Angle Park
Cessnock
Shepparton
Hobart

ENTERTAINMENT

No items listed.

AAP Diary Contact: Roslyn King Phone: 02 9322 8779 Fax: 02 9322 8717

AAP RTV rk/ah/mg/br/jx

KEYWORD: DIARY THURSDAY AUGUST 3, 2000

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Oppn keeps up heat on Howard over National Textiles

2012-03-01T07:49:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-2000
Fed: Oppn keeps up heat on Howard over National Textiles

CANBERRA, Feb 16 AAP - The federal opposition is expected to keep the heat on Prime
Minister John Howard in parliament today over the role he played in the rescue package
for National Textiles workers.

Labor yesterday accused Mr Howard of trying to protect his brother Stan from scrutiny
by a liquidator and of overstating the powers of Australia's corporate watchdog.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley used parliamentary privilege to strengthen the attack
against Mr Howard's involvement in the $4 million rescue package for the 342 Hunter Valley
workers.

He accused Mr Howard of drumming up support for a deed of arrangement for National
Textiles to stop liquidators moving in and taking action against the directors and Stan
Howard, who was company chairman.

"There is no doubt at all in these circumstances a special deal has been done," Mr Beazley said.

"You picked up from your brother, that particular idea, and floated it across the workers.

"You then put it through your cabinet, that deed of arrangement."

Mr Howard strongly defended his actions and accused the opposition of a running a sleazy
smear campaign.

"We were driven on all occasions by a concern for the retrenched workers," Mr Howard
told parliament.

He said all directors of National Textiles, including Stan Howard, would be investigated
by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which could impose penalties,
instigate criminal proceedings and require compensation if it found any wrongdoing.

But Labor's legal affairs spokesman Robert McClelland later issued a statement saying
ASIC did not have the same powers as a liquidator.

"Under the Corporations Law, there are some powers which only liquidators, and not
the ASIC, are entitled to exercise," he said.

Mr McClelland said a liquidator could take action against directors for insolvent trading
even where ASIC refused to act or failed in any proceedings for a penalty.

"That is why the government's insistence on a Deed of Arrangement as a precondition
to federal government assistance will result in tangible benefit for the directors of
National Textiles."

AAp daw/bdm/br

KEYWORD: SACKED DAYLEAD

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Signal blunder sends train down wrong track

2012-03-01T06:18:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-1999
NSW: Signal blunder sends train down wrong track

A Blue Mountains commuter train was reportedly sent down the wrong track yesterday
after a human error in a one-day-old signal box.

The 9.57am west bound train from Central to Lithgow was sent off the main western line
on to the Richmond line at switch points, travelling 400m the wrong way to Blacktown Station.

The Daily Telegraph reports there were several hundred passeengers on board.

The incident comes less than two weeks after seven people, including a young boy, were
killed and 51 others injured when an intercity service crashed near Glenbrook Station
due to a signalling problem.

State Rail spokesman WAYNE GEDDES says human error by one controller was to blame.

The newspaper reports the train was delayed at the station while it was shunted onto
the main western line and cleared to proceed.

Mr GEDDES says there's no problem with the signalling infrastructure and the controller
would today provide an explanation for his actions.

The new Blacktown signal box only began operation on Monday.

AAP RTV sal/pjg

KEYWORD: SIGNAL (SYDNEY)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

VIC: One dead at La Trobe Uni

2012-03-01T04:46:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-1999
VIC: One dead at La Trobe Uni

Ambulance officers say a person has been shot dead at a La Trobe University campus in
north-eastern Melbourne.

MORE RTV lmw/jlw/lm

KEYWORD: LATROBE (MELBOURNE)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Main stories in today s Sydney newspapers = 2

2012-03-01T03:15:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
02-06-1999
NSW: Main stories in today s Sydney newspapers = 2

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: An analysis of how the Howard government's new tax plan will affect every
Australian business.

Page 2: Law firm warns that landlords may be liable for their nuisance tenants.

Page 3: The Australian dollar climbs to a nine month high, touching US65.17 cents on the
back of a reassessment of the country's economic fundamentals and a rise in metal prices; A
Victorian magistrate rules that Bruno Grollo, Rino Grollo and their former accountant Bruce
Dowding have a case to answer on one charge each …

FED:Activists should be thankful: whalers

2012-03-01T01:43:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
01-10-2012
FED:Activists should be thankful: whalers

By Matthew Sadler

CANBERRA, Jan 10 AAP - The three protesters who boarded a Japanese security vessel
and are soon to be returned to Australia have had a lucky escape, a body representing
Japanese whalers says.

The men had risked being taken to Japan and being charged with trespass after boarding
the Shonan Maru 2 off the coast of Bunbury on Saturday night.

"These three guys can thank their lucky stars," Institute of Cetacean Research spokesman
Glenn Inwood told AAP on Tuesday.

"They did risk being taken back to Japan and …

Tas: Big bang set to see off old fireworks laws

2012-03-01T00:12:00.001-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
01-01-2010
Tas: Big bang set to see off old fireworks laws

Laws limiting the sale of fireworks in Tasmania come into effect today.

Under the new rules .. people must get a 66 dollar permit to buy fireworks and there'll
be a …

SA:Mum shocked by Christmas body confession

2012-02-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-05-2011
SA:Mum shocked by Christmas body confession

The mother of a woman accused of murdering a pensioner was shocked by her daughter's
Christmas Eve confession to disposing of the plastic wrapped body.

INARA DOMBROVSKA has told the Supreme Court in Adelaide her daughter ANGELIKA GAVARE
told her she'd wrapped the body of 83-year-old VONNE MCGLYNN in plastic and was certain
police wouldn't find her.

A few weeks later, GAVARE told her mother the tale wasn't true.

35-year-old GAVARE, of Christie Downs, is on trial after pleading not guilty to the
2008 murder of fierecly independent pensioner, Ms MCGLYNN.

The trial's been told GAVARE killed the pensioner out of greed, wanting to steal her
things and sell her house.

AAP RTV lk/nap

KEYWORD: GAVARE (ADELAIDE)

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

travaux préparatoires

2012-02-29T22:41:00.001-08:00

travaux préparatoires [French] Preparatory works that form a background to the enactment of legislation; for example, recommendations of Royal Commissions and consultative documents published by the government. They may not be used by the courts as an aid to interpreting the legislation. See interpretation of statutes.

VIC:Man dies when car hits trees in north Vic

2012-02-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
04-10-2011
VIC:Man dies when car hits trees in north Vic

MELBOURNE, April 10 AAP - A 57-year-old man is dead after his car hit trees.

The accident happened about 11.30am (AEST) on Sunday on the Loddon Valley Highway,
Jarklin, in northern Victoria.

There were no passengers in the car.

The man's death brings the road toll to 82, one more than at the same time last year.

It was the second fatality of the weekend.

A teenager died on Saturday after the car he was travelling in rolled over on a Victorian
country road.

The 17-year-old died at the scene on Labuan Road, Numurkah in the state's northeast
about 9.50pm (AEST).

AAP mj/sn

KEYWORD: TOLL VIC UPDATE

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FED:$56/month for basic NBN access

2012-02-29T20:19:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2010
FED:$56/month for basic NBN access

Households are likely to pay about 56 dollars a month to secure basic access to the
35.9 billion dollar National Broadband Network.

The NBN business plan .. released today .. shows telecommunications companies will
have to pay a monthly rate of 24-dollars for a basic 12 megabits per second package.

When this service is sold on to families and businesses .. retailers are likely to
charge about 56 dollars per month.

The long-awaited plan also promises a seven per cent rate of return .. based on a 70
per cent takeup of the network by businesses and homes.

Prime Minister JULIA GILLARD says the business case shows taxpayers' investment will
be returned with interest.

But Opposition Leader TONY ABBOTT's declared the plan is yet more evidence of a government
unable to deliver promises on time or on budget.

AAP RTV pv/sb/tm

KEYWORD: NBN (CANBERRA)

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FED:Opp'n calls on cops to investigate leak

2012-02-29T18:50:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-2010
FED:Opp'n calls on cops to investigate leak

The coalition has approached the Australian Federal Police requesting it investigate
the source of a leak of confidential Treasury analysis to a Sydney newspaper.

The document .. leaked to The Sydney Morning Herald .. suggested the opposition had
an 800-million-dollar black hole in its campaign costings.

Coalition campaign spokesman ANDREW ROBB says with Treasurer WAYNE SWAN refusing to
address the issue .. his party's been left with no alternative other than to directly
approach the AFP.

AAP RTV jcd/rl/jen/

KEYWORD: POLL10 BUDGET ROBB (CANBERRA)

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

SA: Man on bike approached girl: police

2012-02-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2010
SA: Man on bike approached girl: police

Police in Adelaide are searching for a suspicious man in Adelaide who tried to call
an eight-year-old girl over to his bicycle and made an indecent suggestion.

They say the incident happened on Burlington Street in Walkerville

Police say the man they are looking for is in his late-40s or early 50s .. around six
feet tall with a scruffy appearance .. dirty red or blonde hair and yellow and stained
teeth.

He wore a white T-shirt and red tracksuit pants .. and his bicycle had a black wire
basket on the front.

AAP RTV sbl/wz

KEYWORD: PUSHBIKE (ADELAIDE)

2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: James Packer and I look like twins, says alleged stalker

2012-02-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-21-2009
NSW: James Packer and I look like twins, says alleged stalker

SYDNEY, Aug 21 AAP - A woman banned from stalking one of James Packer and his family
says she and the business magnate look like twins.

Teresa Wendy Jagla, from Canley Vale in Sydney's west, has made the claim to journalists
on Friday outside Waverley Local Court, where a magistrate is due to hear allegations
she had breached an interim AVO (Apprehended Violence Order).

In June, the 43-year-old, who still maintains the late Kerry Packer is her father,
was ordered to stay away from James Packer and his wife Erica for a period of three years.

The breaches she faces relate to an interim AVO, claiming she loitered outside Packer's
Bondi home and Park Street office in Sydney's CBD in October last year.

Jagla told journalists she just wanted to speak to James Packer to see if "we can sort
this out legally".

"Just so he can see me; I think if he saw me he would know I was his legitimate sister,"

she said.

Asked what proof she had, Jagla replied: "A mirrored image."

"The way I look it does basically match the way Kerry and James look," she said.

"James and I look like twins."

Magistrate Antony Townsden will conduct the hearing later on Friday.

AAP mss/hn/sn/jlw/

KEYWORD: JAGLA

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Vic: Hardline needed on school violence - coalition

2012-02-29T14:23:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2009
Vic: Hardline needed on school violence - coalition

A Victorian coalition government would crack down on violence in schools if they were
to win next years state election.

Under their education policy .. released today .. principals would be given the power
to suspend or expel students at their own discretion .. ban weapons .. and increase punishments
for assault or vandalism.

AAP RTV kb/gfr/sw/

KEYWORD: EDUCATION VIC (MELBOURNE)

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Vic: $38bn transport bonanza expected today

2012-02-29T12:55:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2008
Vic: $38bn transport bonanza expected today

A six billion dollar road project .. linking freeways in Melbourne's north and east
.. 72 new trains .. and 52 new trams .. are at the centre of the Victorian government's
transport plan .. to be announced today.

The Herald Sun reports the nine kilometre North East Link road will join the Metropolitan
Ring Road at Greensborough with the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen .. including a 4.5 kilometre
tunnel under houses and the Yarra River.

Other projects in the 38 billion dollar scheme include:

- the underground rail link from Footscray to Caulfield;

- the Frankston bypass road, worth $700 million;

- converting emergency lanes on the West Gate Freeway to traffic lanes .. widening
to five lanes each way; and

- a new study of a plan to install flyovers or underpasses to clear four major intersections
along Hoddle Street.

The Age newspaper says the government will spend 4.2 billion to buy 52 suburban trains
.. 20 country trains .. and 50 low-floor trams to greatly expand public transport capacity.

AAP RTV jrd/psm/

KEYWORD: TRANSPORT VIC (MELBOURNE)

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

WA:Mounting speculation Buswell to stand down as oppn leader

2012-02-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-04-2008
WA:Mounting speculation Buswell to stand down as oppn leader

PERTH, August 4, AAP - Speculation is mounting that West Australian Liberal Opposition
Leader Troy Buswell is set to stand down as leader.

The ABC is reporting that internal party polling has shown Mr Buswell cannot carry
the support of Liberal voters at the next election.

Senior Liberal members met at the weekend to discuss installing former opposition leader
Colin Barnett in the position, the ABC says.

Mr Barnett, a former energy, resources and education minister in the Richard Court
government, lead the Liberal Party to the last state election in 2005.

The next poll is due before May 2 next year, but anticipation is mounting that Premier
Alan Carpenter will call an election within months.

Most of the state elections in Western Australia since 1959 however, have been held
in the month of February.

Mr Buswell has been the subject of increasing pressure to stand down since he admitted
sniffing a chair that a female staffer had been sitting on.

He is a first-term MP, while Mr Barnett has 18 years experience as a politician.

AAP jp/cdh

KEYWORD: BUSWELL

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: ATMs in pokies venues is wrong: Rudd

2012-02-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2008
Fed: ATMs in pokies venues is wrong: Rudd

Prime Minister KEVIN RUDD says it's wrong to have ATMs at poker machine venues.

He says he's not promising the world .. but he looks forward to talking to senator-elect
NICK XENOPHON who wants ATMs banned from gambling areas .. and smart cards to limit the
amount players can pump into linked pokie machines.

AAP RTV kc/sw/jmt

KEYWORD: POKIES RUDD (CANBERRA)

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Qld: Winds ease as low moves north

2012-02-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2007
Qld: Winds ease as low moves north

BRISBANE, Aug 23 AAP - Winds were expected to ease today after wild weather which has
buffeted south-east Queensland.

Winds of up to 80km/h lashed the Sunshine Coast yesterday as a low pressure system moved north.

Power was cut to thousands of homes and businesses, rail and ferry services were cancelled
and beaches closed.

The low passed over the Wide Bay area last night but Emergency Management Queensland
said there was little damage.

The weather bureau has forecast more rain, mostly in coastal areas north of Brisbane.

"The winds have eased off now but we've got very showery conditions - almost rain,"

said senior forecaster Gavin Holcombe.

"That rain is going to continue today and into tomorrow morning before that eases back.

"So we should see further rain and we are looking at around 10mm to 20mm around the
area (south-east Queensland) for the next 24 hours."

Mr Holcombe said between 40mm and 50mm had fallen in dam catchment areas in the past
four days but only around 1mm has fallen in the dam areas since yesterday, he said.

Meanwhile, heavy seas were continuing to affect Moreton and Stradbroke Islands, the
Sunshine Coast and Fraser Island.

Conditions have eased on the Gold Coast but dangerous rips remained.

A gale warning has been issued for coastal waters, although wind gusts were no longer
expected to reach 90km/h.

AAP rad/jm/de

KEYWORD: WIND QLD DAYLEAD

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

SA: Man killed in train fall

2012-02-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
04-08-2007
SA: Man killed in train fall

ADELAIDE, April 8 AAP - A man has died in a fall from a passenger train onto tracks
in Adelaide's south.

The 26-year-old man, from Klemzig, was riding between the carriages when he fell at
Coromandel Valley station about 11.40pm (CST) yesterday, police said.

He was not struck by the train, but was spotted by the driver as he fell.

The man died at the scene.

AAP jrd/ks/cdh

KEYWORD: TRAIN

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Diary Events for Thursday, December 7, 2006

2012-02-29T05:31:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2006
Diary Events for Thursday, December 7, 2006

EVENTS LISTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER AND LOCAL TIME UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED:

ADELAIDE
1130 - Winner announced of George Mackay Trophy for Most Outstanding Export Wine of the
Year. Vineyard off Hackney Rd, Adelaide. Contact: Eric Wisgard 0439 998 897.

BRISBANE
1000 - Bank of Queensland 2006 AGM. Ballrooms 2 and 3, Sofitel Hotel, Turbot St, Brisbane.

Contact: Paul Turner 0439 730 547.

1000 - Daniel Morcombe third anniversary of disappearance media conference. Det Snr Sgt
Paul Schmidt and Bruce Morcombe will be available for comment. Nambour Connection Road,
Kiel Mountain Overpass, Palmwoods. Contact: Snr Sgt Julie Elliott 3015 2444.

CANBERRA
0900 - House of Representatives sits.

0930 - Senate sits.

0930 - House of Representatives Parliamentary Committee on the current and future directions
of Australia's service industries, Committee Room 2R2, Parliament House, Canberra. Contact:
02 6277 4587.

0945 - Pathways to Prevention Project, a study into problem behaviour in young children,
will be launched in Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra. Contact: Paul Andrew
02 9219 2080, 0409 665 495.

1045 - Media opportunity with Olympic gold medallist rower James Tomkins. AIS Rowing Sheds,
Alexandria Drive, Yarralumla, Canberra. Contact: David Polglase 02 6273 0232, 0401 453
041.

1100 - House of Representatives Parliamentary Committee on financial reporting and equipment
acquisition at the Department of Defence and Defence Materiel Organisation, Committee
Room 2S3, Parliament House, Canberra. Contact: 02 6277 4615.

1130 - Australians launch investigation into organ harvesting in China. Senator Andrew
Bartlett, Senator Kerry Nettle and Chris Bowen MP will speak and make their announcement
to join the coalition to investigate the persecution of Falun Gong.

1530 - Senate Standing Committee on Economics, Committee Room 2S3, Parliament House, Canberra.

Contact: Peter Hullahan 02 6277 3541.

DARWIN
No items listed.

HOBART
No items listed.

PERTH
No items listed.

MELBOURNE
1800 - Red Carpet for The Australian Film Industry's AFI awards; 1900 - AFI awards hosted
by Geoffrey Rush, presenters including Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Daniel Radcliffe.

Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, 2 Clarendon Street, Southbank.

1830 - Charles Leski Auction of cricket memorabilia continues. 13 Cato Street, Hawthorn
East. Contact: 9864 9999. www.leski.com.au

SYDNEY
- All day - President Roh Moo-hyun from the Republic of Korea to address the South Korean
business forum. Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney. Contact: John Wotton 0417 680 452 or 9876
2433.

- All day - Day-long workshop on The Future of Channel Planning, sponsored by AdNews.

Sydney. Contact: Penny Packard 8306 9555.

0745 - Lane Cove Tunnel Action Group holds public forum on Lane Cove Tunnel and Greens
MP and roads spokesperson Lee Rhiannon announces party's candidate for Epping. Epping
Community Centre, 9 Oxford Street, Epping. Contact: Lee Rhiannon 9230 3511 or 0427 861
568 or Ryde Greens candidate Peter Bell 0403 892 268.

0830 - AIRC senior deputy president Jacquie Seemann to address the Workplace Research
Centre's NSW Breakfast briefing on Unfair Dismissal. Wesley Conference Centre, 220 Pitt
St, Sydney. Contact: 1800 260 864.

1000 - Demonstration of the CSIRO 6 gigabit wireless link, claimed to be the fastest and
most efficient wireless link ever achieved. CSIRO ICT Centre, Cnr Vimiera and Pembroke
Rds, Marsfield. Media should confirm attendance. Contact: Tom McGuinness 02 9325 3227
or 0419 419 210.

1045 - Launch of a new consumer information website to protect your financial identity.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Level 18, No 1 Martin Place, Sydney.

Contact: Heather Wellard 8298 0411 or 0409 830 439 or Danielle Huck (03) 9280 3407 or
0417 540 769.

1100 - Famed futurist Hans Tholstrup should arrive having driven from Adelaide in a Santa
Fe CRDi without refuelling its standard 75 litre diesel fuel tank, a distance of about
1,400km. Sydney City Hyundai, corner South Dowling & O'Dea St, Waterloo. Contact: Scott
Gillespie 0417 233 670.

1130 - Launch of AMP Capital Investors economic landscape of 2006. AMP, Harbour Terrace
Rooms 4&5, 33 Alfred Street, Sydney. Contact: Jillian Maxwell 9257 2766 or Ben Leeson
9257 5097.

1200 - Australian British Chamber of Commerce hosts lunchtime debate Climate Change: Can
Australian Business Rise to the Challenge? Moderator Robyn Williams, panel headed by Michael
Hawker, IAG. The Sofitel Hotel, Elizabeth St. Contact: Jenny Garber 0416 262 189.

1200 - The 2006 Human Rights Medal and Awards to be presented. The Grand Ballroom, Sheraton
on the Park, Sydney. Contact: Devra Adler 9284 9834.

1400 - Volunteers to pack thousands of Christmas toys for struggling Australian families.

Falkiner Pavilion, Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park (enter via gate 11). Contact:
Louise Partridge 0418 201 533.

1530 - Police and Motorcyclists to join with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service to
launch the annual Summer Blood Challenge. Police Memorial, Art Gallery Road, Royal Botanic
Gardens & Domain. Contact: Damien Carbon 9229 4416 or 0412 332 122.

1645 - Christmas comes to Hurstville celebration. Memorial Square, Hurstville City Centre.

Contact: Paul Spyve 9330 6008 or 0411 748 953 or Stewart Heaney 9330 6036.

SPORT
CRICKET - Pura Cup - Round 4 - to December 9 TAS v SA, Bellerive Oval SOCCER - 2006/07
A-League Season Draw - Round 16 - to December 10 2000 (AEDT) - Qld Roar FC v Newcastle
Jets FC, Suncorp Std, Bris SWIMMING - Australian C'Ships/Selection Trials FINA World C'ships
- to December 10 Sleeman Aquatic Centre, Chandler, Brisbane GOLF - Australian PGA championships
- to December 10 Hyatt Regency Coolum BASKETBALL - NBL championship - Round 12 - to December
10 1700 (AEDT) - NZ Breakers v Cairns Taipans, North Shore Events Centre, Auckland SWIMMING
- World Disability C'ships - to December 9 Durban, Sth Africa GOLF - Barbados World Cup
- to December 10 Sandy Lane Resort, Barbados GALLOPS - Canterbury Ballarat Ipswich Sapphire
Coast Pinjarra New Zealand TROTS - Penrith Maryborough Gold Coast Newcastle GREYHOUNDS
- Dapto Sandown Albion Park Angle Park Horsham Maitland Wangaratta Hobart

AAP RTV kaj/evt/cdh/wz/cp

KEYWORD: DIARY EVENTS THURSDAY DECEMBER 7, 2006

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

AP Top News at 12:30 p.m. EDT

2012-02-29T04:02:00.000-08:00

AP Online
06-20-2006

Bodies of Missing U.S. Soldiers Recovered

In this undated photo released by the U.S. Army, Pfc. Thomas Tucker is shown. A group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Monday, June 19, 2006, it had kidnapped Tucker and Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, who were reported missing Friday while manning a checkpoint. Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, announced that the bodies of Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., had been discovered on a street in Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi defense ministry official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." The U.S. military said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said U.S. forces _ part of a search involving some 8,000 American and Iraqi troops _ found the bodies late Monday near Youssifiyah, where they disappeared Friday.

North Korea Insists It Can Test Missiles

South Korean protesters are blocked by riot policemen, holding a picture of North leader Kim Jong Il as they try to meet South Korean unification minister to protest against possible launch of North Korea's missile in front of Government House in Seoul, Tuesday, June 20, 2006. South Korea has demanded North Korea abandon any plans to launch a long-range missile and warned of serious consequences if the communist nation goes forward, the ruling party said Tuesday, while there were conflicting reports about whether the rocket was fueled and ready to fire. The Korean read " Denounce Kim Jong Il." (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

TOKYO (AP) _ North Korea declared Tuesday it is not bound by its own moratorium on long-range missile tests, a Japanese news report said, prompting Japan and South Korea to pledge to cooperate to stop Pyongyang's apparent plans for a launch. The Tokyo-Seoul agreement came during a 25-minute phone conversation late Tuesday between Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his counterpart, Ban Ki-moon, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Bush to Meet With EU Leaders in Austria

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush walk toward Air Force One en route to Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, June 20, 2006, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., outside Washington. Bush will meet with European Union leaders in Vienna and travel to Budapest, Hungary, before returning to Washington on Thursday. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) _ "Old Europe" and "New Europe" get equal billing this week during President Bush's latest trip across the Atlantic. Before leaving on his 15th presidential trip to the Continent, Bush touted ties between the United States and Europe, praising joint efforts to end Syrian involvement in Lebanon, establish peace between Israelis and Palestinians, fight poverty, AIDS and genocide in Africa, battle terrorism and establish democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Safavian Found Guilty in Lobbyist Trial

David Safavian, the former chief of staff at the General Services Administration, leaves the U.S. District Courthouse, Monday, June 12, 2006, in Washington. On Tuesday, June 20, 2006, a jury found Safavian guilty of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff. Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer.

15-Foot Waves Destroy Homes in Nicaragua

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) _ Big waves generated by a storm thousands of miles away battered Central America's Pacific Coast on Tuesday, destroying at least 20 houses in Nicaragua and a small hotel in Guatemala, civil defense officials said. There were no reports of fatalities. Authorities ordered 200 people evacuated in Nicaragua as reports of high tides came in from Mexico and several Central American countries.

AP: Police Got Phone Data From Brokers

In this document obtained by the Associated Press from congressional investigators, e-mails from February 2006 show how a customer was trying to obtain information on NBA basketball player Damon Jones of the Cleveland Cavaliers. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers. These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press.

Stocks Turn Higher on Housing Data

An apartment building under construction overlooks a gargoyle on the New York Evening Post building in lower Manhattan on Monday June 19, 2006. The Commerce Department reports Tuesday on housing starts for May. The Evening Post building was completed in 1907. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK (AP) _ Wall Street wiped out early losses Tuesday, turning higher as solid housing data quelled investors' concerns about a melting economy and rising interest rates. The market was recovering from a steep decline in Monday's session, but more erratic trading was expected in the coming days as investors await the Federal Reserve's latest statement on inflation and economic growth after its meeting next week.

CBS News Says Dan Rather Leaving

Broadcast journalist Dan Rather speaks about at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, March 9, 2006. Rather is reportedly considering an offer from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on the HDNet cable channel. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)

NEW YORK (AP) _ Dan Rather, the hard-charging anchorman who dominated CBS News for more than two decades but whose final months were clouded by a discredited story on the president's military service, is leaving CBS after 44 years, the network announced Tuesday. The 74-year-old Rather has complained of being virtually forgotten at CBS Corp. since his exit as anchor last year, six months after the story on President Bush's military service aired. He has said he is considering an offer to do a weekly show at the HDNet high-definition network.

Major Web Browsers Getting Facelifts

Graphic shows market share data for Internet browsers. (AP Graphic)

NEW YORK (AP) _ The major Web browsers are getting facelifts as they increasingly become the focal point for handling business transactions and running programs over the Internet rather than simply displaying Web sites. The upgrades are the latest skirmish in the browser war that started in the mid-1990s and led to Microsoft's triumph over Netscape. The battles reignited in 2004, when Mozilla's Firefox launched and revealed new avenues of development.

Germany Beats 3-0 Ecuador to Win Group A

Germany's Miroslav Klose (11) battles for possession with Ecuador's Ulises De La Cruz (4) in the second half during the Ecuador v Germany Group A World Cup soccer match at the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 20, 2006. The other teams in Group A are Costa Rica and Poland. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

BERLIN (AP) _ Miroslav Klose scored two goals Tuesday to help Germany to a 3-0 win over Ecuador and first place in Group A of the World Cup. Lukas Podolski also scored for Germany, which has nine points from its three group matches and will face the runner-up from Group B in the second round on Saturday in Munich.

Fed: Couples choosing third party to keep marriage on track

2012-02-29T02:37:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2006
Fed: Couples choosing third party to keep marriage on track

By Amy Fallon

SYDNEY, Feb 9 AAP - It's supposed to be between two, but sometimes a relationship can
benefit from the intervention of a third party - even before the union is legally sealed.

Whether it's money, work, sex, the house, the kids, the pets, the in-laws or the laundry,
an increasing number of couples are these days opting for a marriage counsellor to iron
out the crimps in their togetherness.

For many of them, professional advice offers the only means of avoiding "splitsville"

- or even worse, the divorce court.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show 52,747 divorces were granted
in Australia in 2004 - down by 0.7 per cent on the number for 2003.

But the federal government wants to lower the rate further - and working with the convention
that prevention provides the best cure, is offering couples help to prepare for marriage.

Prime Minister John Howard has backed the establishment of new Family Relationship
Centres, at which pre-marriage classes will be complemented by a counselling referral
service for couples contemplating marriage.

Post-marriage, the centres will compel couples considering separation or divorce to
attend three-hour counselling sessions before moving to end their relationships in the
Family Court.

A total of 65 centres nationwide are to be established, with the first 15 expected
to be running by mid-year.

The classes will be similar to those already provided by Relationships Australia, an
organisation which offers resources to couples, individuals and families to help enhance
and support relationships.

The body offers a range of marriage counselling, including "one-on-ones" and group sessions.

Director of NSW operations Lyn Fletcher said pre-marriage courses helped couples to
better manage conflict resolution.

"We're not trying to create a perfect marriage, but in a way the perfect marriage is
one in which people learn and grow together," she said.

"It's also better for society to have the divorce rate down."

She said issues that could cause conflict in any relationship included retrenchment,
the death of a parent and not being able to have children.

But many people didn't realise that situations change.

"For people to think the way they feel now will be the way they will feel forever is
unrealistic," Ms Fletcher said.

"And just because you're in love doesn't mean to say you think or want the same things."

She said there was also a "fantasy" that individuals would find someone with whom they
were totally compatible.

"That's just not possible," Ms Fletcher said.

"Even your identical twin will be different to you."

It is even more important for married couples to make sure they want to be together,
she said, as often there are children to think about.

"The children may see the conflict between their parents, and that is the most damaging
thing," Ms Fletcher said.

She said specific questions couples would look at in the courses include "who am I?

where have I come from? What are the norms in my family? How have I grown up and what
are my expectations of relationships?".

Although some people were pushed into attending the sessions, most couples felt it was worth it.

"Most people spend a heap more time choosing their wedding dress and their wedding
cake and their cars and the reception than they do going to one of these workshops," she
said.

But completing the course won't guarantee living happily ever after.

"That doesn't mean that these couples will stay together forever, but they are better
equipped to manage their relationship," Ms Fletcher said.

Cheryl, who did not wish to give her surname, and her fiancee Kevin, have been together
for two-and-a-half years and are six weeks away from becoming husband and wife.

Despite claiming to "not even have had an argument," the Wollongong pair have decided
to see a counsellor before taking the plunge.

The couple have been seeing a facilitator privately for an hour every couple of weeks.

"It was actually Kevin's idea, which surprised me, because guys aren't usually into
that," the 33-year-old said.

Cheryl said the course had taught them to deal with future issues, such as parenting,
but also everyday things like what to have for dinner.

"We're both really bad at making decisions ... even about what we're having for dinner,"

she said.

"So it's helped us get used to asking for what we want without worrying about what
the other person is going to think or say."

Cheryl said even though they had nearly graduated from the course, there were still
"no guarantees" of a perfect life together.

"But at least we know we've given it the best shot," she said.

Cheryl said the idea of compelling people to undergo counselling was not as appealing.

"If you're forcing someone to do it and they really don't want to, then they're probably
not going to get much out of it," she said.

Carolyn Mallam runs marriage courses with the Uniting Church, as well as her own private
arrangements.

She said herself and her husband of 31 years had been to two marriage enrichment courses.

"It has certainly helped," the 55-year-old mother of two said.

She said counselling provided separating partners with a "final opportunity" to look
at what they're throwing away.

AAP af/was/jt/de

KEYWORD: MARRIAGE (AAP NEWSFEATURE) (REPEATING)

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

SA: Scarf ban a dopey idea says SA minister

2012-02-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

AAP General News (Australia)
08-29-2005
SA: Scarf ban a dopey idea says SA minister

South Australian Education Minister JANE LOMAX-SMITH says a push to ban Muslim girls
from wearing headscarves at public schools is a dopey idea.

She says the proposal, supported by federal Liberals BRONWYN BISHOP and SOPHIE PANOPOULOS,
is a form of political correctness that the South Australian government won't entertain.

Ms LOMAX-SMITH says such a ban is about as dopey as banning Christmas trees in kindergartens,
and is just the way to drive people into the arms of extremism.

She says she wants schools to be inclusive and tolerant, and respect difference.

AAP RTV tjd/ibw/jmt

KEYWORD: SCARF SA (ADELAIDE)

2005 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Me generation

2012-02-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

We live in a culture in which some of the wealthiest, most famous and most celebrated young people in the country start almost every sentence, every tweet, Facebook update, virtually every thought with the word "I."

Keeping a secret? Why? That's considered quaint, and by the way it just might be bad business.

It's all about "Look at me" and "Listen to me," and "Let me tell you a story about what I just did and what I'm about to do next!"

I'm going to be at a nightclub in Vegas this weekend, where a liquor company will pay me $50,000 to shout "Woooo!" and do a couple of auto-tuned songs, thinks the pop star.

I'm going to have cameras following me around day and night as I share every moment of being a teenage mom, tweets the reality star.

I truly feel I'm special, and I'm on this Earth to share my story with others so that they may learn from it. I'm going to tell you all the details of my scandalous upbringing, my multiple romances and my problems with addictions in my new book, to be excerpted in People magazine, writes the movie star.

I'm the best wide receiver in the game! I'm going to hold out for more money because $10 million is an insult to my talents, tweets the football star.

As much as I love to complain about the paparazzi stalking my every move, I don't blame them. Who wouldn't want to know every detail of my life, whether I'm walking through an airport, having lunch with my fabulous new love interest or announcing my next reality show in which I'll move to a new city and take it by storm!

I-I-I. Me-me-me. Every detail of my life is worth sharing, every accomplishment is to be bragged about, dissected, monetized.

Narcissism is no longer a negative. It's a given on many a celebrity's resume.

Call these people "egotistic" and they'll send you a thank-you e-mail.

Well. They have people who will do it for them.

Famously unknown

Now consider the mentality of the Navy SEALs — the elite of the elite, the black-ops experts who execute the riskiest missions imaginable, stuff straight out of the movies.

We're told Navy SEAL "Team Six" carried out the daring, heroic raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, taking out the most wanted man in the world and scoring one of the great victories in recent American military history. (No doubt there were other fighting forces represented on the mission as well.) We've seen some former SEALs on TV, talking about the mission in vague terms, explaining how they believe it was carried out.

But as of right now, we don't know the name of the man who took out bin Laden. Odds are we never will know that name.

He will not stand front and center at medal ceremonies. He will not ride floats in parades or make appearances on talk shows. If his story is told in a book or a movie, it will most likely be a highly fictionalized version.

He's walking around right now knowing he executed one of the most famous kill shots in modern history, knowing there's a nation saluting his daring, a president grateful for his heroism, freedom-loving people around the world who applaud him and his colleagues for what they've done.

(Of course, there are more than a few conspiracy theorists who don't believe the White House timeline. In their world, bin Laden's been dead for six years, and the whole raid over the weekend is an elaborate, wide-ranging ruse. Or bin Laden's not dead — he's out there and he's going to surface any day now, and that'll blow the lid off the this whole thing!)

On the Roe and Roeper show on Tuesday afternoon, former Navy SEAL and CIA officer Dick Couch was a guest. I asked him flat out if we would ever learn the identity of the individual(s) that were responsible for bringing down bin Laden.

"I would hope not," said Couch, who said that not only would it be counterproductive for the SEAL's name to be known, it could endanger him.

So most likely we'll never know.

In a world in which millions upon millions of people open their lives on Facebook, share every thought on Twitter, talk about every intimate detail of their professional and personal lives on the Internet and among family and friends, he's pretty much going to keep this most amazing secret to himself, now and forever.

That alone is worth a medal.

RICHARD A. CHAPMAN

Pull Quote: Narcissism is no longer anegative. It's a given on many a celebrity's resume.

dolore3

Yemen's al-Qaida urges kidnapping of Saudi royals

Town wants money from Greenbrier: Famous resort not in limits of White Sulphur Springs

Charges Dropped Against 2 Palestinians

Want good Web? Better get wired

My friends, I declare here and now that the usefulness of WiFi for home networking has run its course. It's time for us all to switch back to copper.

WHEN GREED HAS NO LIMITS: Outsourcing and job "restructuring" swell corporate profits

Taliban Claims to Kill German Hostages

Rays rough up Angels to end 3-game losing streak

Festival fee plan clears 1st hurdle // Council panel OKs neighborhood payment for services

Court refuses to block execution in Ohio

NYC to address PCB-contaminated caulk in schools

STAT PACK

Asian Tour appoints ex-Euro tour chief

Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race

Phillies 1, Marlins 0

Japan relief organizations

The Illuminated Church and the Rayonnant Style

The Illuminated Church and the Rayonnant Style

Light, Vision, and Architecture.

STAINED Glass

Historical Origins

Making Stained Glass

Color and Shapes

Variations

Rayonnant Architecture.

The Sainte-Chapelle.

Clermont Cathedral.

Different Paths.

sources

Designer enters 2011 moving forward, looking back

Improving Patterson could return this week

Four killed when truck rams hayride trailer

Canada captain Bagai coming 'home' to New Delhi

Real race to win 2016 Olympics bid set to begin

Dick Advocaat takes over as coach of AZ Alkmaar

Egypt's ruling party opens possible path for Mubarak's son's succession

Magazine's kitchen issue hits stands

Frat loses appeal Judge reaffirms right of NU to control house

Campaigns take cash, seek details later

Resources

Jazz Win 1st Series Since Mailman's Days

Lamont cannot manage to downplay his debut

OUT & ABOUT

WORLD at 1000GMT

Torino, Genoa players banned after brawl

Metro BRIEFINGS

MORE SACRIFICES LIKELY FOR ALBANY CITY SCHOOLS.(Capital Region)

PORT ACTIVITY.(BUSINESS)

Ford needs German fix.(News)(Brief Article)(Interview)

Russia Cuts Travel Links With Georgia

Flashback

Shall we gather at the river: a photographic essay of believer's baptism by immersion.(Essay)

How to keep new moms a part of the workforce.(Perspective)

COURT REINSTATES ATTEMPTED-MURDER INDICTMENT.(CAPITAL REGION)

Editor's note.(Editorial)

Bangladesh vs. Pakistan

Americans Sweet on Italy's Affordable Asti

JCR keeps Heiwado's debts at A.

Noteworthy.(Capital Region)

STEINBERG CLIENT HAS PLEA VACATED.(Local)

(null)

Sky is the limit for Airbus' double-decker jumbo

'Footprint' a mix of traditional, modern.(Arts & Entertainment)

RICH PEPSI SERIES BEGINS TONIGHT.(Sports)

3rd border activist convicted in AZ border deaths

Fatal truck crash yields charges; Man accused of DWI, manslaughter is in jail after passenger dies.(Capital Region)

ACS raises bid for Germany's Hochtief

Epoch Internet cuts Sales Force

Risk scoring newest aid for AF.(Market Updates)(atrial fibrillation )

Wherefore Art Thou Homeo?

PR gov: 30,000 workers could be fired amid crisis

RIVERSIDE ASPIRATIONS

'Hacking 2.0' is vandalism with an element of danger

6th LD-Writethru: Egypt's Mubarak says will not seek next term as protests upgrade

What makes a trustworthy paper?

Vic: Opposition questions $495,000 contract to lawyer

NSW: Camden maternity staff says no problem

Vic: Praise for water frugal public

NSW: Feuding rabbis should stop harassing each other, says judge

STAINED
Glass